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Reminiscences of Plymouth 

Luzerne County, Penna. 



A Pen Picture of the Old Landmarks of the 
Town; the Names of Old Residents; the 
Manners, Customs and Descriptive Scenes, 
and Incidents of Its Early History. 



By 

SAMUEL LIVINGSTON FRENCH 

1914- 






Copyrighted, 1915, by 

SAMUEL LIVINGSTON FRENCH 

Plymouth, Penna. 



I^.AY -3 1915 

©GI.a:J98B49 



PREFACE 

Q OME time ago an elderly gentleman of near my 
^ own age and a stranger in the town, called upon 
me in search of information regarding some of the old 
landmarks of Plymouth which he remembered, but had 
not seen since his young boyhood. I have also heard 
of other old people, who, in response to that inherent 
longing, or natural instinct which impels a return to the 
paternal nest, having visited the town to view the scenes 
of their youth, and revive the precious memories of their 
happy childhood. 

There are doubtless many others who are imbued 
with the same natural human desire; and in a measure 
to gratify such, it was suggested to me, that perhaps I, 
as one of the few remaining relics of a past age was 
properly qualified and therefore in duty bound, so far 
as possible, to rescue from oblivion and perpetuate the 
old memories, by placing on record enduring evidence 
of bygone scenes and incidents. In the contemplation of 
that task, in the efforts in tracing up obliterated, or fast 
disappearing landmarks, I have been somewhat sur- 
prised to discover but comparatively few persons re- 
maining here whose knowledge regarding the past was 
in that respect much, if any better or more reliable than 
my own. 

That circumstance, while strangely enough arousing 
a suspicion in my mind that I too must be getting old 
and fossilized, also tended to add force to the sugges- 
tion that perhaps a duty was devolving upon me to under- 
take a task which in the course of nature, "if it were 
done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done 
quickly." 



The describing and recounting of old scenes and 
incidents as they have been recalled by my researches 
haa been to me a labor of love, and I submit the results 
of my efforts in endeavoring to comply with the injunc- 
tion, "rejoice and do good," in the hope that by reviving 
memories of long forgotten scenes may assist perhaps 
some despondent natives to live again in memory the 
happy days of their youth. 



S. L. French. 



Plymouth^ Pa.^ 

December l$th, 19 14. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter I. 

Early History — Connecticut Charter — Shawnee Indians — Town 
Name — Erection of the Borough — Petitioners for — First 
Officials — Boundaries of — Elections — Cliques and Fights. I 

Chapter II. 

Lower End of Town— The Old Hodge House— The Wright 
Homestead — Silk Industry — Mrs. Ellen Wright — Landscape 
Scenery — Samuel Ransom — John Kreidler — Thos. Mast — 
Isaac Kreidler — Home Sweet Home — Query for Naturalists 
— Old Scenes — Hodge Cemetery. 5 

Chapter III. 

Col. Ransom's Homestead — His Capture by Indians — Ira Ran- 
som — The "Swing Gate"— School Boy's Pranks— Old Sucker 
Hole — Round Stakes — Thos. Davenport's House — Ira 
Davenport — His Store — Post Office — Mails and Stage Coach 
— John and Elijah Davenport — Cider Press — John B. Smith's 
House — Jessop's Hotel — Chas. Water's Shoe Shop — Samuel 
Davenport's Store — Chauncey Reynolds' House — Albert Ga- 
'briel — C. E. Young — Turner's Tannery — "Aunt" Fanny 
Turner — Turner's Store — Wadham's Store — The M. E. 
Church — Old Kingston Church. 14 

Chapter IV. 

Old M. E. Parsonage — Donation parties — H. Gaylord's Home- 
stead — Old Store — James Macfarlane — First National Bank 
— Conrad Shafer — Draper Smith's Store — F. E. Spry — Par- 
dee and Winters — C. L. Farnum — Jos. Preston — C. A. 
Kuschke — Gaylord's Store — Capt. Asher Gaylord — Gaylor^s 
Railroad and Wharf — Dietrtck's Hotel — Samuel Turner — 
James McAlarney — Eli Bittenbender — Ouerin Krothe — 
Noah Wadham's Homestead — Andrew Shupp — Geo. P. 
Richard's — "Squire" Brown — Nesbitt Homstead — Old Scenes 
— Elm Hill and Tree — John J. Shonk — Olewine — Culver — 
"Sammy" Gould. 24 



Chapter V. 

Coal Street — Oliver Davenport — Edwin Davenport — Christopher 
Garrahan — Patrick Cullen — Phoebe Pringle — Carpenter 
Rinus — French's Grist Mill — John Smith — "Aunt" Charry 
Clark — The French Tunnel — Francis J. Smith — Calathum- 
pian Serenades — The Horse Fiddle — The "Big Coal Bed" — 
William Dennis — Richard Egbertson — Robt. Davenport — 
Samuel Vanloon — Benj. and Fuller Reynolds — Calvin and 
Samuel Wadhams — Manny Wharram — Benj. Pringle — SamH 
Lewis — Sam' I Harrison. 32 

Chapter VI. 
Early Religious Services — The Old Academy — Lorenzo Dow — 
Great Religious Revival — Revs. Miles and Snowden — Pres- 
byterians — A Personal Episode and Erection of a Church — 
First Church Edifice — Christian Church — Early Ministers of 
— Early Schools and Teachers — The Bachelor's Club — Their 
Rules and Proceedings — Benj. Parke — Other Teachers — 
Corporal Punishment — The Old Lecture Room School House 
— The Spelling School. 39 

Chapter VII. 
Farming Methods — Threshing and Marketing Grain — Flax In- 
dustry — The Old Spinning Wheels — Dipping Candles — Grist 
Mills — Coal Industry — Building of Arks and Boats — Shaw- 
nee Against the World — Origin of Slogan — Methods of Pre- 
paring and Shipping Coal — Old Records — Coal Markets — 
Cost of Mining and Selling — Prices for Coal — Hard Times 
— Deplorable Conditions — Wages and Cost of Commodities. 

48 

Chapter VIII. 
Early Coal Operators and Mines — Choke Island — Broderick and 
Conyngham's Troubles — Exit of Individual Operators and the 
Entrance of Corporations — Capture of Fugitive Slaves — Bru- 
talities of the Fugitive Slave Law — Uncle Tom's Cabin. 56 

Chapter IX. 

Reverie — Wild Pigeons — Swimming — Rafting — A Disappointing 
Experience — Traveling Inconveniencies — Flood of 1852 and 
the Resulting Hardships — Flood of 1865 — Incidents of the 
Flood — Early Military Organizations — The Shawnee Rang- 
ers — General Training — Martial Music — Black Jack — Later 
Military Companies — Top Heaviness of the Military Estab- 
lishments. 62 



Chapter X. 

Early Methods of Traveling — Weaver's Stage Line — Steamboats 
— The Little Jim — Transferring Canal Boats — Shows and 
Circuses — Burial Grounds and Cemeteries — Early Medical 
Methods — Doctors — Bogus Diplomas. 70 

Chapter XI. 

Early Methods of Weighing — System of Barter — Reason for 
Peculiarity of Prices of Commodities — Currency Conditions 
— Spanish Coins — Fips and Shillings — Counterfeit Notes — 
Era of Shinplasters — Customs of Early Merchants — Means 
of Travel — Wholesale Merchants — Arrival of Goods — 
Pedlars and Their Wares. 77 

Chapter XII. 

The Past and the Present, Comparisons — The "Appy Og" — 
Mythical Superior Traits of Honesty — Early Habits and 
Characteristics of People — Social Customs — Sociability 
Among Neighbors — Quilting Parties — Visiting — Apple Cuts 
and Candy Pulls — Deferences to Old People — Incidents — 
The 400 Society — Town Newspapers — Names of Business 
Men and Firms. 81 

Chapter XIII. 

The War of the Rebellion — Captain Gaylord — Copperheads — 
Fishing Creek Confederacy — Skulkers — Funeral of First Vic- 
tim — Rev. Thomas P. Hunt — An Incident — Bounty Bonds 
— Railroad Riots of 1877 — Acts of Lawlessness — Arrival of 
Troops — The Molly Maguires — Killing of Dunleavy. 87 

Chapter XIV. 

The Avondale Disaster — Typhoid Fever Epidemic — The Changes 
in Population — A Filial Tribute — Conclusion. 91 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Facing 
Page. 



View from Wright Homestead Frontispiece 

The Wright Homestead 6 ♦ 

The French Homestead 13' 

The Big Coal Bed Se*" 

The Old Academy , 39 v 

Academy Street from Shawnee Avenue ^2^ 



Chapter I. 

Early History — Connecticut Charter — ^Shawnee Indians — Town 
Name — Erection of the Borough — Petitioners for — First 
Officials — Boundaries of — Elections — Cliques and Fights 

T N the Historical Sketches of Plymouth by the 
Honorable Hendrick B. Wright, to whose history 
I acknowledge indebtedness for much of the historical 
data relating to the earlier history of the town which I 
shall have occasion to refer to in the following pages, 
that author gives the date of "birth of Plymouth," as 
December 28th, 1768. 

It was one of the noted seventeen townships em- 
braced within the territory vested in the "Susquehanna 
Company," by charter granted by King Charles II. of 
England, in 1662, and known as the "Connecticut 
Charter," which covered a tract of land extending be- 
tween two parallel lines of latitude some fifty miles north 
and south, and from east to west, from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific Oceans. As King Charles, in his generosity 
nineteen years later, to-wit: March 4, 1681, granted 
precisely the same tract or parcel of land to William 
Penn and his associates, known as the "Proprietary 
Government of Pennsylvania," this slight lapse of 
memory, or lack of knowledge of geography on the part 
of George, was subsequently the cause of some very 
serious misunderstandings, and differences of opinion in 
the minds of the early settlers, to say nothing about the 
rights and claims of the Shawnee Tribe of Indians, who 
were the original landlords and proprietors of the real 
estate in dispute. But, as these reminiscences concern 
only the scenes and occurrences transpiring within the 
last hundred years, it is not my purpose to mix into that 
quarrel, nor discuss the subject, pro and con, of the exer- 
cise therein, of the right of eminent domain, which in 



2 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

plain vernacular, means the acquisition, under color of 
law, of valuable possessions by brute force; further than 
to intimate that the above-mentioned clerical or geo- 
graphical error created a very unpleasant muss which 
lasted many years, but is now barred out from con- 
troversy by the statute of limitations. 

The town of Plymouth is often in derision, disdain- 
fully called "Black Shawnee," when referred to by some 
well-to-do people, whose non-aristocratic ancestors in all 
probability may have accumulated the wealth which they 
enjoy by selling rum over the counter at three cents a 
drink, or perhaps, whose barefooted grandmothers drove 
cows to pasture on the mountain - sides or on Shawnee 
Flats. 

The name "Shawnee" ought to have been retained, 
as being more original and appropriate, and much more 
preferable to the Puritan one of "Plymouth," and, in 
commemoration of the original aborigines, whose belli- 
gerent characteristics were doubtless inherited by their 
later successors, and in a measure, is being perpetuated 
in the well-known slogan of "Shawnee against the 
World!" 

The present Borough of Plymouth was erected by 
decree of Honorable John N. Conyngham, President 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne 
County, on the 23rd day of April, A. D., 1866, upon 
the recommendation of the Grand Jury, upon petition 
therefor of the following named residents, to-wit: 

John B. Smith H. Gaylord 

Peter Shupp Draper Smith 

JosiAH M. Eno Daniel Gardiner 

A. R. Matthews William Jenkins 

Geo. p. Richards S. M. Davenport 

Edward Griffith Lewis Boughton 

A. F. Shupp John J. Shonk 

James McAlarney J. P. Davenport 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 3 

Eli Bittenbender Theodore Renshaw 

David McDonald Edward G. Jones 

C. A. KuscHKE J. L. Nesbitt 

Andrew F. Levi J. W, Weston 

Querin Krothe J. H. Waters 

David Madden John E. Halleck 

John Dodson E. R. Wolfe 

Darius Gardiner F. E. Spry 

John Cobley C. F. Derby 

W. L. Lance, Jr. Anthony Duffy 

J. E. Smith D. Brown 

R. N. Smith A. G. Rickard 

John Dennis T. P. Macfarlane 

David Levi W. L. Lance 

W. W. Lance Lewis Gorham 

Wm. W. Dietrick John Jessop 

James Hutchinson A. S. Davenport 

George Brown A, Hutchinson 

Oliver Davenport Brice S. Blair 

Samuel French John S. Geddis 

A. Gabriel C. H. Wilson, M.D. 

The first borough election under that decree was 
held in the "Old Academy," under the auspices of Oliver 
Davenport as judge, and John J. Shonk and Ira Daven- 
port as inspectors, on the second Tuesday of the follow- 
ing May, when Elijah C. Wadhams was elected Burgess. 

The boundaries of the borough embraced approxi- 
mately the territory extending from the line of No. 1 1 
Coal Breaker property of the L. & W. B. Coal Com- 
pany on the east, to the old Mud Tunnel Road — prob- 
ably a mile and a half distant — on the west; and from 
the river on the south up to a little beyond a line parallel 
with Back Street, now known as Shawnee Avenue, or 
from near the river, excluding farm lands, to near the 
foot of the mountain. The borough was divided into 
two wards, the East and the West, the dividing line 
being Academy Street, and the borough elections were 
held in the Old Academy where the township elections 
had previously been held. 



4 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

These township or general elections in the days of 
my boyhood were always looked upon as gala days. On 
those occasions the pent up enthusiasm of the patriots 
would make itself manifest, and in consequence there 
would be more or less excitement the entire day. During 
the preliminary campaigns the ardor of the voters would 
be frequently aroused and kept at proper temperature 
by means of "flag-pole raisings," on which occasions 
speeches by prominent orators were the dominant fea- 
tures. Hickory poles, in reference to "Old Hickory" — 
General Jackson — would symbolize the loco-foco or 
Democratic party, and pine, that of the whigs or Repub- 
lican, and which were also called "liberty poles." On 
the tops of these poles there would usually be retained 
the natural branches and foliage that there might be no 
mistake made as to their political identity. 

The voters on election days would assemble from the 
Kingston line on the east, to West Nanticoke on the 
west, and almost invariably, when the Nanticoke contin- 
gent had arrived upon the ground in the afternoon, there 
would start a fight, and torn clothes and bloody heads 
would be conspicuously in evidence. These patriotic 
ebullitions, however, must not be wholly credited to the 
Nanticoke boys, for since the earliest times there seems 
to have been a jealous clique existing between the "up- 
town" and "downtown" sections of the community; the 
dividing line between the factions being the old Acad- 
emy; and, like their aboriginal predecessors, when the 
two factions happened to meet in numbers, there was 
likely to be a scrimmage. At one of these general elec- 
tions I recall, a new element from the neighborhood of 
Welsh Hill, or Poke Hollow, was injected, which united 
the factions, and there resulted a general battle in which 
clubs and stones were very much in evidence. The in- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 5 

vaders, however, were ignominiously driven from the 
field without any serious damage resulting. Another in- 
stance about the time of the outbreak of the rebellion, 
when a clash occurred between a copper-head preacher 
named Headly and one of the prominent citizens for a 
time threatened more serious results. 



Chapter II. 

Lower End of Town — The Old Hodge House — The Wright 
Homestead — Silk Industry — Mrs. Ellen Wright — Landscape 
Scenery — Samuel Ransom — ^John Kreidler — ^Thos. Mast — 
Isaac Kreidler — Home Sweet Home — Query for Naturalists 
— Old Scenes — Hodge Cemetery. 

T N recounting my recollections and impressions 
of the scenes, old landmarks and old residents of 
Plymouth, I will commence at the lower, or west end of 
the borough; that locality being the place of my birth 
and where the larger part of my boyhood days were 
spent; and thence, following the main or principal thor- 
oughfare eastward, will endeavor to picture the scenes in 
regular order as I recall them upwards of sixty years 
ago: 

Beginning at a point on the lower side of the road 
nearby the bridge which crosses the excavation made 
for the old Jersey plane, there stood an old black house 
two stories high which, I think, was known as the "Old 
Hodge House," and where lived in early days, if I am 
not mistaken, a man named Skadden, who was a cabinet- 
maker. I have in my possession an old writing desk and 
bookcase more than a hundred years old which belonged 
to my grandfather; it is made of cherry wood, which 
grew on Shawnee Flats, and which, I believe, was made 
by Mr. Skadden, and still attests the superiority of his 



6 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

workmanship. This house was later occupied by a 
family named Bangs, and later still by Carpenter Rinus, 
an old citizen, and at the time of the building of the 
L. & B. R.R., Anthony Duffy, a section boss, lived there. 
Mr. Duffy, who was quite an original, afterwards be- 
came one of Plymouth's foremost and enterprising citi- 
zens. He built Duffy's Hall, now occupied as a saloon 
and public hall by F. L. Donn. He used to tell of an 
opportunity he once had of buying a town site in Ireland 
for a pair of boots, and the only reason the purchase 
was not made was because he didn't have the boots. 

A little further down and on the opposite side of the 
road, in a little one and a half story building there lived 
an old colored man with a white wife, who was known 
as Black Anthony. This house was later occupied by 
Thomas Worman. Coming up the road, on the upper 
side, near the Mud Tunnel Road, stood the large Andrus 
barn, so named for a former occupant of a red house a 
few rods further up. Directly in front of this house and 
on the lower side of the road, stood a large walnut tree, 
and near it was a road leading down to my step grand- 
father's barn, behind which there usually stood several 
large stacks of hay and grain. Almost precisely on this 
spot now stands the fan house and Wright slope of the 
Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. 

Coming up on the upper side of the main road was 
the dwelling house of my step-grandfather, Joseph 
Wright, the father of Hendrick B., Caleb E. and Har- 
rison Wright. This house is yet standing, though in a 
dilapidated condition. On the westerly side of this house 
there used to be a stream of clear water and by the side 
of the road stood a public watering trough. Here was 
also a beautiful grove of mulberry trees covering prob- 
ably two or three acres of ground, and there, when a boy. 




-, '^fm0 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 7 

I used to spread salt in long troughs for the benefit of a 
flock of sheep, and at certain seasons of the year my task 
was to gather mulberry leaves to feed my grandmother's 
silk worms, which she raised in the front room of her 
house, where they were spread out on long tables built 
for the purpose. They grew to be large green, repulsive 
looking things, about the size of a man's finger, and 
when fully engaged In devouring the leaves, their masti- 
cation exertions were quite noisy. I don't just remem- 
ber the process, but after a short period these nasty 
looking varments would roll, or transform themselves 
into the most beautiful golden cocoons, which my grand- 
mother would somehow or other manipulate into silk 
thread, which was later transformed into stockings or 
other articles of wearing apparel. She also had a 
weaver's loom in another building in the rear of the 
house, where, like others of her neighbors, she wove 
wool and flaxen cloths. In the yard beside the garden 
fence there stood a tall hop pole — a familiar sight at 
nearly all the dwellings — where a profusion of hops were 
grown for use in making yeast to raise bread and for the 
manufacture of hop poultices, but these articles are now 
numbered among the lost arts and about the only useful 
purpose this valuable vegetable promoter of health and 
comfort now serves in this enlightened age is in the 
manufacture of beer, with which to raise — well, domestic 
infelicity. 

My grandmother, who died in the ninety-seventh 
year of her age, was in very many respects a most re- 
markable woman. She was a great reader, well versed 
in all the current events of the day, and I have reason 
to believe, she thoroughly understood the almanac and 
knew the Bible almost by heart, from Genesis to Reva- 
latlons, including the Apochrypha. I lived with her when 



8 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

quite a young man, and upon returning from church on 
Sundays, where I sometimes went, if I could manage to 
remember but three or four words of the text, she could 
most always locate, if not repeat it. One night I was out 
pretty late — I was old enough to attend "apple cuts" — 
and I came into the house on tip-toe, and as I imagined, 
had made a safe retreat. The next morning she said to, 
me, "Livingston, what time did you comq in last night?" 
"Oh," I replied, "I guess it must have been about lO 
o'clock." "Well!" she said, "the moon didn't rise last 
night until after i o'clock, and it was some time after 
that before you came in." 

There was no immediate occasion for any further 
argument, and I had urgent business out in the yard. 

In front of this house was a beautiful view of broad 
and fertile fields and meadows, where many a day I have 
worked at hoeing corn or making hay, but this is now 
all obscured and obliterated; the greater portion of the 
landscape being covered over with huge piles of culm 
and debris from the old Washington coal breaker and 
the Wright slope, and its former beauty exists only in 
memory. 

A few rods on further up the road was the residence 
of Samuel Ransom — yet standing. This house was 
originally built for use as a hotel, but was not so used 
within my remembrance. On the lower side of the road 
and in front of the house stood his barn, and just above 
the house was the dairy house which was supplied with 
water from a small stream coming from a spring a little 
way above. Just below this and near the road was the 
hennery, and on the upper side of the road was a public 
watering trough. These last named premises later gave 
place to the residence and surroundings of William L. 
Lance. 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 9 

Samuel Ransom had several children, only three of 
whom I recall as living with him. They were Court- 
right and Jamison, both near my own age, and a younger 
daughter, Margretta. There was also a daughter, 
Hannah, who died. They subsequently removed to the 
neighborhood of Muncy, on the west branch of the 
Susquehanna. 

Coming a little farther up and on the same side of 
the road, I have a faint recollection of there having 
stood a blacksmith's shop conducted by a colored man 
known as "Black John," and next above, there stands 
yet, a one and a half story red house where lived in my 
earliest recollection, Elias Petty, who drove team for my 
father. Mrs. Katy Gabriel also at one time lived there. 
Later, this building was converted into and used as a 
store by my father. It is now used as a tenement house. 
On the opposite side of the road was the wheelwright 
shop and residence of John Kreidler, and the black- 
smith shop and residence of Thomas Mast. 

Almost in front of Kreidler's shop, and quite in the 
roadway, there stood a very large walnut tree. This 
wheelwright shop and residence was afterwards occu- 
pied by Isaac Kreidler, who used to make for us boys 
hand sleds with oak runners, for which he charged, first 
a shilling {12^2 cents), then 15 cents each, which was a 
fabulous sum of money; later he declared he could not 
afford to make any more for less than 25 cents, which 
was an utterly prohibitory price, and that industry 
ceased. In emergent cases, he would also occasionally 
make coffins. These were made with double folding lids 
and were invariably stained red. 

The residence of Mr. Mast, which is yet standing, 
was afterwards occupied by the family of Robert Hun- 
ter, who drove the Chauncey tunnel, the coal mine now 



lo Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

operated by the George F. Lee Coal Company. Mr. 
Hunter had a large family; two of his sons, Robert and 
James, served in the army during the war of the re- 
bellion, and a daughter, Ellen, married Philip Keller, 
and was the mother of Joseph H. Schwartz's first wife. 
Mr. Mast removed to the West Branch of the Susque- 
hanna. 

John Kreidler had two children, George and Sabina. 
The family removed to Illinois, and George died from 
the effects of wounds received In the battle of Pittsburgh 
Landing. 

Next in order comes the most interesting place to me 
of all, the old paternal homestead. On the upper side 
of the road there stands today the main part of the old 
stone house which was probably built by a man named 
Coleman, who was of the early large property owners in 
Plymouth, or possibly, by James Hodge, who had for- 
merly lived In it; and, although it is probably more than 
a hundred years old, is apparently in as good condition 
now as ever. There, on the 28th day of September, 
1839, I first saw the light of day, and there, barring the 
time I spent away at school or in the army, I spent the 
most of, and the happiest days of my early life. How 
often I recall, and realize the truth of the words of 
my revered old maiden aunt, who, when I would be 
fretting and worrying over some boyish troubles, would 
say: "Poor child, he is living the happiest days of his 
life and don't know it." 

The front and side of the house was almost entirely 
covered over with climbing ivy, and the spacious yard 
was filled with large black cherry and other trees and 
shrubbery, affording abundant and delightful shade in 
hot weather, and likewise, a safe retreat for innumer- 
able birds of varied kinds and plumage, in which to hold 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. ii 

their daily concerts. But these beautiful feathered 
musicians of nature, like the original aborigines, have en- 
tirely disappeared before the onward sweep of civiliza- 
tion; most of their species, if not now become extinct, 
are but reminiscences of natural history, and the sweet 
melody of birds has given place to yelping mongrel dogs 
— and such is civilization. 

This diversion in the interests of the feathered tribe 
recalls an incident which perhaps will be of interest to 
naturalists. One day as I was approaching the house 
through the front yard, my attention was attracted to 
the peculiar antics of a small bird, flitting to and fro 
among the vines with drooping wings and apparently in 
distress. I walked towards it and came very near put- 
ting my hand on a big black snake which was coiled 
around the trunk of the vine some four or five feet above 
the ground. I stepped back and for a few moments 
watched the bird, which, with plaintive cry would every 
|:ime come closer and closer, apparently fearing to ap- 
proach, yet powerless to resist. I shot the snake and 
threw it out on the grass, and for several hours after 
that bird would hop around and near it, acting precisely 
as It did in the vines, all the time making the same dole- 
ful cry. Was not that bird charmed by the snake ? But 
to resume again the thread of my story; there, at the side 
of the house near the kitchen door and under the shade 
of a huge walnut tree, stood the old wooden pump with 
its long iron handle — "How dear to my heart are the 
scenes of my childhood." On that iron handle I once 
on a banter, "stuck" my tongue on a frosty morning; it 
stuck all right to my great sorrow. 

On the easterly side and a few yards distant ran 
the Ransom Creek, which in my earliest recollections 
was a stream of clear water. There I used to play with 



12 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

sail boats and water wheels, and there in early spring my 
father's sheep were brought to be washed and sheared. 
Among that flock of sheep I have reason to remember, 
was the "old ram," so well known to many men and 
boys whose great delight was to tease him in the pasture 
lot above the barn, and who thus became so ferocious 
that my father hung on his horns, covering his face and 
giving him a very grotesque appearance, a large piece of 
sole leather with small eyeholes cut in it, as a means of 
protective warning to strangers who might happen to 
come within his range. 

On the north side of the house were the barns and 
sheds, to the right of which there was formerly an apple 
orchard, and a little farther up where tenement houses 
now stand was a beautiful grove of oak trees, where 
Sunday School picnics were sometimes held. 

From the barnyard, a narrow lane, lined with mul- 
berry trees led up the hill into an apple orchard, near the 
east side of which, later, ran the old Washington plane ; 
and in the lower corner of this orchard, under the shade 
of a large wild cherry tree, was located a small private 
burying ground of the Hodge family, for James Hodge 
had formerly lived in the homestead. This burial place 
filled with briar bushes and weeds, was surrounded by a 
rather dilapidated stone wall, and within it was a large 
tomb or vault, which in turn was surrounded with a 
wooden fence, the corner posts of which were sur- 
mounted with large wooden urns. This particular 
tomb always impressed me, when a boy, with a feeling 
of awe, and close beside it was another grave, on the 
head-stone of which I recall the horrifying inscription : 

"Remember, friend, as you pass by, 
As you are now, so once was I." 

This graveyard is now entirely obliterated, not a 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 13 

vestige of it remains; the dead, like the old, are in the 
way, and must make room for progress ; and thus, like 

"Imperial Caeser, dead and turned to clay, 
May stop a hole to keep the wind away." 

Returning again to the homestead, on the westerly 
side and but a few feet distant, was a frame building 
built originally for a carriage house. This my father 
fitted up as a private school room for us children, under 
the tutelage of my elder sister. There being ample 
room, and no detriment to proper instruction thereby, a 
few of the neighbors' children were admitted as pupils. 
Of these, I recall the names of Mary and Ellen Garra- 
han, Esther and Isabel Bulkley, Sam McNulty, Wilson 
Wright and Hannah Miller, who worked for my grand- 
mother. This school was successfully continued for 
several years, and after its abandonment the building was 
converted into an office and private club room, where, 
under the leadership of W. Z. Hatcher, a near neighbor, 
Will and De Haven Lance, my brother and myself used 
to meet most every evening and practice as a string 
band. We had a flute, two or three violins, and a violin- 
cello, and made pretty good music. Those, indeed, were 
happy days. 

On the opposite side of the road from the house was 
a one-story schoolhouse, but this I will describe in an- 
other chapter. 

In the preceding descriptions, as in those to follow, 
I have endeavored to picture the old town as I remem- 
ber it many years ago. The intervening spaces between 
the buildings mentioned, have, in many instances, since 
been solidly built up. 



Chapter III. 

Col. Ransom's Homestead — His Capture by Indians — Ira Ran- 
som—The "Swing Gate"— School Boy's Pranks— Old Sucker 
Hole — Round Stakes — Thos. Davenport's House — Ira 
Davenport — His Store — Post Office — Mails and Stage Coach 
— John and Elijah Davenport — Cider Press — John B. Smith's 
House — Jessop's Hotel — Chas. Water's Shoe Shop — Samuel 
Davenport's Store — Chauncey Reynolds' House — Albert Ga- 
briel — C. E. Young — Turner's Tannery — "Atunt" Fanny 
Turner— Turner's Store— Wadham's Store— The M. E. 
Church — Old Kingston Church. 

CROSSING Ransom's Creek to the eastward, and 
near its grass covered bank, under the shade of 
sturdy old oaks, stood the large red dwelling house of 
that old revolutionary veteran, "Col." George P. Ran- 
som, and of which only the depression in the ground to 
mark the place which was once the cellar is now in evi- 
dence. This house faced broadside to the roadway with 
a wide doorway in the center, in the entrance of which 
hung one or two rifles with their necessary accoutrements 
of powder horns and leather pouches, together with some 
relics of the hunter's skill in the form of buck's horns. 
To the rear, and a little to one side under a large oak, 
was a small stone dairy or milk house supplied with a 
running stream of clear cold water which served the pur- 
pose of a refrigerator. Further up the creek was a long, 
one and a half story double dwelling house, occupied at 
one time by Edward (Neddy) Crowell, and a black- 
smith named Fletcher. It was also, I think, known as 
the "Black John House." In front, at one side of the 
Ransom house, and near the roadside, there was an open 
wagonshed where the old Colonel's pony coach was kept. 
On the opposite side of the road stood the barn with a 
long open cow shed, at the side. 

My earliest recollection of Colonel Ransom was 
when he walked with two canes, the possession of which 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 15 

I have been told, I would cry for. He would drive out 
with a pair of ponies hitched to an open-top conveyance 
of the buckboard style, but in his later years he was con- 
fined during the day to a roller chair under the charge 
of Charles (Mutt) Barber, who would attend to his 
wants in preparing his tobacco — of which he was an in- 
veterate user — in the form of convenient sized quids, 
and seeing that the whiskey bottle was kept filled. I 
remember that one evening, when I was a small boy, my 
aunt took me over to call on him for the purpose of 
hearing him relate his adventures with the Indians; of 
how he, and some of his comrades, while visiting some 
girl friends were captured in a house which stood on the 
upper side of the road near the spot where Whitman's 
shoe store now stands; of their journey to Canada,, their 
subsequent escape therefrom, and the difficulties and pri- 
vations they underwent while travelling through the 
forests in making their way homeward. These tales 
were of thrilling interest to me, and were only marred 
by his extreme reticence in the telling, and his very vigor- 
ous expectoration efforts as he sat in his arm-chair in 
front of the huge open fire-place. He died in 1850, aged 
about 90 years. I was present at his burial, which took 
place with military honors in the old Shupp burying 
ground. His son, Ira, a brave veteran of the late war 
of the rebellion, and now upwards of 92 years of age, is 
still living in good health on his farm in Jackson town- 
ship ; a remarkable and probably unparalleled instance in 
the county, if not in the State, of a living, real "son of 
the Revolution." 

Coming on further up the street on the same side, on 
a knoll at the intersection of Coal and Main Streets, and 
on the spot now occupied by the store building of the 
late Edwin Davenport, stood the little one-story frame 



1 6 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

schoolhouse which was afterwards removed further 
down the street. Directly in front of the schoolhouse 
was the "swinggate," which closed the flat road during 
the growing and harvest season from the depredations 
of vagrant cattle and swine. This road led straight 
down to "Garrison Hill," where was always a thrifty 
growth of willows, and to which place the boys of the 
school would be sent by the teacher to get his supply of 
chastisement rods. Sometimes these would be so in- 
geniously twisted, or perforated before delivery, as to 
make their stinging qualities less painful. Continuing 
straight down to the river was the old "sucker hole," 
where, in early spring, was always to be found a dozen 
or more enthusiastic fishermen with poles and lines fish- 
ing for suckers. 

There being considerable space in the roadway be- 
tween the schoolhouse and the swing gate that was a 
favorite spot on which men and boys would meet to play 
"round stakes," which was the original baseball game. 
In these contests, Eb. and Dow Rinus, both wiry ath- 
letes, were always the star players, and with one of them 
at the bat and the other as pitcher, there was always 
some lively action. Dow, by the way, was a very expert 
fiddler; he played entirely by air, and his services were 
always in great demand at the country dances. On the 
lefthand side of the entrance to the flat road was the 
barn and sheds of Oliver Davenport, with the usual com- 
plement of grain and hay stacks surrounding. 

On the hill past the schoolhouse next came the old 
house with its high stone steps in front, the former resi- 
dence, I believe, of Thomas Davenport. My first recol- 
lection of this building was when, as a small boy, I at- 
tended the funeral there of some young man, which was 
conducted under the auspices of the Odd Fellows. The 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 17 

new and splendid brick silk factory of the Atwood's now 
occupies the site of this building. A little further on, is 
the brick dwelling house of the late Ira Davenport. I 
believe this, and the one occupied by the late R. N. Smith 
a little farther up, were the first brick dwellings to be 
erected in Plymouth, unless possibly the one where Sam- 
uel Davenport lived. The next one, I think, was the 
hotel built by John Nesbitt on Elm Hill, and now occu- 
pied by George B. Shonk, and the first brick store to be 
erected in town was that of E. C. Wadhams. Directly 
in front of Ira Davenport's house was the old Daven- 
port barn and sheds, and on the same side and farther 
east, still stands his store established in 1845. The space 
between this and the Flat road and extending down that 
road some distance, is now almost solidly built up with 
frame houses, conspicuous by the generous number of 
beer saloons therein. 

Davenport's store in my boyhood days was one of 
the prominent places "downtown." It was Democratic 
headquarters, and there in the evening would assemble 
the patriots of the neighborhood who would line up on 
the counters, spit tobacco juice, swap stories and discuss 
politics and town scandal generally. It was, I think, 
during the administration of President Pierce that the 
post office was removed here from the store of Draper 
Smith in the upper end of town. Postage on letters in 
those days was five cents prepaid, or ten cents on de- 
livery. Letters were so folded as to form their own en- 
velope and were sealed with wax or a wafer, and when 
forwarded by the postmaster, they were wrapped up in 
paper in bundles according to destination, and so labelled. 
Ira's method of registering a letter, which was a rare 
occurrence, was simply to mark on it "Registered," and 
the act was performed. The mail was transported by 



1 8 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

stage coach. At each post office it was sorted and 
changed, that is, the mail sack was emptied and all mail 
for that particular office was taken out and replaced by 
that which was to be forwarded. 

The stage coach from down river points usually came 
up in the early evening at intervals of two or three days, 
and on summer evenings, occasionally one of our diver- 
sions would be to hang on the "boot" behind and ride 
up, sometimes as far as Elm Hill, which was a tremend- 
ous distance. The distance from the bridge over Ran- 
som's Creek to the one over Brown's Creek was con- 
sidered exactly one mile. 

Ira Davenport was one of the most prominent and 
influential men of the town; strictly honest and open 
hearted; he enjoyed a good joke and was not averse to 
making a little fun. He took a very active interest in all 
public affairs and for many years held several positions 
of public trust — and no profit. He was careful, conser- 
vative, and conscientious in all his acts, and not being 
crooked himself, he would not permit crookedness in 
others if he could prevent it. He was a safe man in 
office for the people, and it would be a God-send, if to- 
day his example in that respect would be followed by 
many others. 

Continuing our travels, the next house in order of 
procession was the residence of John Davenport, the 
father of Ira and Elijah. It was a two-story frame 
building with a wide porch in the rear, and in the yard 
on the west side was a water trough supplied with run- 
ning water from a spring which also supplied another 
public trough at the roadside, and in the rear on one side 
was a small building equipped with a weaving loom, and 
on the other side and near the porch was the wash- 
house. On the east side was the barn, and beyond that, 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 19 

and nearby the house of John B. Smith was the old cider 
press which was made use of every fall by many of the 
residents. 

The old Davenport homestead was subsequently re- 
placed by a more modern one and occupied by Elijah 
Davenport during his lifetime. It is now occupied by 
the family of Joseph Worthington, his son-in-law. The 
next house is the Smith house, before mentioned, and a 
little beyond, about where Blair Street is located, stood 
an old frame house broadside to the road, with a stoop 
or porch extending the whole length of the building, and 
which I believe was the former homestead of Daniel 
Davenport. My most distinct recollection of this build- 
ing was when it was occupied by Mr. Renshaw, the 
father of Theodore. 

Almost directly in front of this building on the lower 
side of the road was an open and shallow well, and close 
by, but further up, was a large barn, and on the site of 
this, or perhaps a little above, was later built the hotel 
which for a number of years was kept by John Jessop 
and his wife. The Jessops moved here from down the 
river, from about opposite Retreat, where for a long 
time they had kept a hotel, and which, like that of "Aunt" 
Lizzie Tuttle's at West Nanticoke, were noted hostelries 
for travellers passing up and down the river. On the 
same side, and a little further up, there used to stand a 
small one-story building used as a shoemaker's shop and 
conducted by Charles Waters. Near this site was later 
built the wagonmaker's shop of J. B. Blakeslee, and just 
above was a blacksmith's shop. 

Nearly all this space, where frogs and burdocks used 
to thrive, down to Ira Davenport's store, is now about 
solidly built up with frame buildings, in which beer 
saloons are much in evidence, and it is very difficult to 
locate the place of old landmarks. 



20 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

On the upper corner of Davenport and Main Streets 
there was formerly a frame store building with a wide 
doorway built on the corner of the building, and was 
occupied by Samuel Davenport, the father of Abijah, 
and was established in 1834. This building burned down 
when I was quite a small boy, and another similar one 
was erected on the opposite corner, which was kept, first, 
by Samuel Davenport and John B. Smith, then by John 
B. Smith, and later, by Abijah Davenport. 

Coming on further up was the stately looking man- 
sion of Chauncey Reynolds, with a row of big trees in 
front, which at certain seasons of the year emitted a 
peculiar and rather sickly odor. This house was located 
just below the wooden bridge which crossed, what Colo- 
nel Wright in his history calls the Whittlesey Creek, but 
is now known as the Wadham's Creek. Diagonally op- 
posite, and above the bridge was the blacksmith shop of 
Albert Gabriel, one of the prominent men of Plymouth. 
He was the son of Henry Gabriel who, as a boy in Sep- 
tember, 1 81 8, in company of my father, then fifteen 
years of age, came here from Milford, Connecticut, with 
the family of John Flanigan. The party travelled with 
a two-horse covered wagon, the men walking, and were 
eleven days on the road. 

A little farther down, on the corner of a road leading 
to the river, was the house of Charles E. Young. This 
house is yet standing, but changed in appearance; his 
son, L. A. Young, is one of the prominent merchants of 
Plymouth. 

Further up the street, and about opposite where John 
B. Smith's Opera House now stands, was the frame store 
building of Chauncey Reynold's, which I don't think 
was conducted as a store very long. Mr. Reynolds was 
a very eccentric man, and as a storekeeper was in a class 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 21 

all by himself. He was not very particular as to the 
manner in which his dry-goods were placed on his 
shelves, one end sometimes being on the counter and 
the other on the shelf. It was said of him that a cus- 
tomer who had purchased a pair of boots and wanted 
some molasses, but had nothing to carry it in, he solved 
the difficulty by putting the molasses in the boots. This 
may be an exaggeration. He had one son, Lazarus, who 
died in his young manhood. 

Further up, and on the same side of the road was 
the Turner "tan house," with the tannery and vats in the 
rear. I have seen hides from these vats hanging to dry 
on the fences along the main road and extending down 
to the river. A little further up we come to the old 
Atherton barn, and next, the frame dwelling house of 
"Aunt" Fanny Turner, which is still standing. She was 
a good and clever old maiden lady who was known to 
most all, and who had lived there from my earliest recol- 
lection. Directly opposite this was the store of John 
Turner, first established in 1828, afterwards conducted 
by his sons, Franklin and James, under the firm name of 
Turner Brothers. This store was one of the earliest 
and most prominent stores of the town, and was con- 
ducted by the Turners for many years. The building is 
yet standing. Just above the store is the Turner home- 
stead building, and below it, west, on the corner of the 
road leading to Turner's Ferry, is the one-story building 
with basement which was occupied when I was a boy by a 
family, I think, named Henry. John Madden also lived 
there at one time, and he kept a tailor's shop in a little 
building just below this, in which, at a later date, lived 
Thomas Wright. This tailor shop was afterwards for a 
number of years used as a millinery store. 



22 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

On the same side of the road and a few yards be- 
low was another old landmark known as the old Ather- 
ton house. It was a large two-story building, but has 
now disappeared. Now, again continuing up the road, 
next comes the historic old Academy on the corner of 
Main and Academy Streets ; this I will leave to describe 
in another chapter. Just above the Academy is yet 
standing the brick store building of the late Elijah C. 
Wadhams. This store as has been previously noted was 
one of the earliest brick buildings to be erected in the 
town. It was built some time not long prior to the year 
1850, and was first occupied by Mr. Wadhams and Ful- 
ler Reynolds under the firm name of Wadhams and 
Reynolds, and Sterling Bedford was their clerk. This 
firm was dissolved after a few years and the business 
was continued by Mr. Wadhams, who was also engaged 
in the business of mining coal, until some time about the 
year 1880, when it was occupied by Messrs Ashley, Hunt 
& Co., until within the last two years. The second story 
of this building was for many years occupied as a lodge 
room by Shawnee Lodge of Odd Fellows, and by Ply- 
mouth Masonic Lodge. 

Directly opposite this store was the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, the first church building — except the Acad- 
emy — I believe, to have been erected in Plymouth. This 
church, was later torn down to give room for the present 
handsome structure. The original building was taken to 
Forty-Fort by John B. Smith, and there set up by him in 
its original form, and dedicated as an independent 
church, and later it was destroyed by fire. It is a some- 
what singular coincidence that the Methodist Church of 
Plymouth should be removed to Forty-Fort, and the old 
Presbyterian Church of Kingston, not far distant there- 
from, and which was an old landmark of that town, 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 23 

should be removed to Plymouth and set up on Franklin 
Street by the Primitive Methodist congregation, and that 
both these buildings should burn down. This old Kings- 
ton church I remember when as a boy, some time about 
the years 1844-5 or 1846, I attended Sunday School 
there, my parents having moved to Kingston for a short 
time about that period in order to receive the advan- 
tages of the Wyoming Seminary. That church, as I re- 
member it, had very high back box pews with doors, a 
gallery on both sides and rear, and the customary two- 
story pulpit. 

The present Methodist Church was erected in 1876. 
Just below this church, on the site now occupied by the 
Methodist Episcopal parsonage, stood for a number of 
years a two-story frame, private schoolhouse, which was 
removed sometime about 1890 by the Episcopal congre- 
gation, to their lot on Academy Street for use as a 
chapel. 

Just above the Wadhams' store, still stands his former 
homestead, which was erected by a man named Bennett 
some time about the year 1852. After it had been va- 
cated by Mr. Wadhams, it was transformed into a hotel 
and conducted respectively by A. M. Jeffords and John 
A. Gruver. It is now used as a dwelling. 



Chapter IV. 

Old M. E. Parsonage — Donation parties — H. Gaylord's Home- 
stead — Old Store — ^James Macfarlane — First National Bank 
— Conrad Shafer — Draper Smith's Store — F. E. Spry — Par- 
dee and Winters — C. L. Farnum — Jos. Preston — ^C. A. 
Kuschke — Gaylord's Store — Capt. Asher Gaylord — Gaylord's 
Railroad and Wharf — Dietrick's Hotel — Samuel Turner — 
James McAlarney — Eli Bittenbender — Querin Krothe — 
Noah Wadham's Homestead — Andrew Shupp — Geo. P. 
Richard's — "Squire" Brown — Nesbitt Homstead — Old Scenes 
— Elm Hill and Tree — John J, Shonk — Olewine — Culver — 
"Sammy" Gould. 

/^ N the opposite side of the road from the Wad- 
^^ ham's store building, and near where the late 
Parrish Coal Company tresseling crosses the road to the 
breaker, for many years stood a small two-story frame 
building which was used as the Methodist parsonage, 
and where annually, as was the custom with country 
churches in early days, was held the old-fashioned dona- 
tion parties. These events were always looked forward 
to as a kind of red letter day in the calendar. The 
friends, young and old, from far and near, would gather 
there on these occasions; the elders during the daytime 
and the young people in the evening for a good time; 
each one bringing their contribution of money, or some 
article of family consumption, such as sugar, tea, coffee, 
flour, bread, cakes, etc. ; usually more provisions than 
money, and as a feast was always expected on these occa- 
sions, naturally much of the donated provisions vanished 
with the guests. In this connection, I recall a story I 
once read which Illustrates the utilitarian virtues of these 
beneficial jamborees; It Is about a donation party which 
was tendered to a young country minister and his bride. 
Most all of the donors on that occasion brought as their 
contribution a pan full of biscuits, and after the young 
wife had shed copious tears over the situation, she per- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 25 

suaded her husband that the only appropriate use they 
could make of the hard crusted offerings would be to 
ornament the tops of the pickets surrounding their house 
with them. Near by this house and by the roadside, stood 
a large barn, and on the opposite side a little farther up 
still stands the mansion house of Henderson Gaylord, 
one of the early and most respected residents of the 
town. This is now occupied as a residence by Alexander 
Ferguson and Dr. G. R. Drake. 

Nearly opposite this building, or about on the site of 
where now stands the residence of the late Mrs. Levi, 
there was formerly a small one-story building where I 
remember when a small boy of having gotten cream 
nuts from Draper Smith, who kept a small store in it. 
This was probably the store mentioned by Colonel 
Wright in his history of Plymouth, as the store where 
Joseph Wright, Benjamin Reynolds and Joel Rogers did 
business, and which was opened in 1812. On the corner 
just below this spot is the building now owned by the 
Stegmaier Brewing Company, where at one time lived 
James Macfarlane, the father of Mrs. Jeanette Lindsay 
and Thomas P. Macfarlane. He sunk the shaft which 
is just below the Chauncey Colliery at Avondale. In the 
upper end of this building was organized and instituted 
in 1864 the First National Bank of Plymouth, with 
Henderson Gaylord as President and William L. Wilson 
as Cashier. On the site of this building there formerly 
stood a small two-story frame dwelling house where, in 
the early 50's lived Conrad Shafer. He was a butcher, 
and his slaughterhouse was a small barn which stood on 
the river bank about where the Atlantic Refining Com- 
pany's oil house is now located. He used to drive a mar- 
ket wagon through town during the summer season, be- 
hind a dashing pair of fast horses with sleigh bells, and 
was, I believe, the pioneer butcher of Plymouth. 



26 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

Further up the street, in the building next above Dr. 
Ashley's residence was the store kept for many years, 
first by Draper Smith, and later by Draper Smith and 
Peter Shupp, under the firm name of Smith and Shupp. 
This building has been moved back and a new front 
built on, and at present is occupied by Mr. H. G. Davis, 
the undertaker. Next above that was the large frame 
building of F. E. Spry, the plumber and hardware dealer, 
occupied at one time by Pardee and Winters in the stove 
and hardware business, and also as a photograph gallery 
by a man named Richards, who also kept an ice cream 
parlor and eating house. This location is now occupied 
by the Shawnee Supply Company, owned by Ambrose 
West. 

The house next above this is another one of the old 
landmarks. A two-story frame dwelling which, in my 
earliest recollection, I think, was occupied by C. L. Far- 
num, the son-in-law of Henderson Gaylord, and later by 
Joseph Preston, the grandfather of Mrs. Dr. H. L. 
Whitney. Eli Bittenbender also lived there at one time, 
and its latest occupant and owner was C. A. Kuschke, 
who for years and until the time of his death a few years 
since, kept a tailoring establishment there, after which 
his son, Henry, established a watchmaker's shop in it. 
Almost directly opposite this building, where is now the 
D. K. Spry block, stood a frame dwelling house and the 
store of Henderson Gaylord, erected in 1827, and where 
he continued in business until 1856, when he was suc- 
ceeded by his son, Captain Asher, a brave officer of the 
143rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, who was 
killed while leading his company in battle at Hatcher's 
Run, Virginia, and whose body was never recovered. 

In the late 50's the second story of this store build- 
ing was used for a private school, which was taught by 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 27 

E. W. Matthews, a popular teacher, who afterwards 
became an officer In the Union Army. I remember a 
vocal concert being given in that room during that period 
by the celebrated Hutchinson family of singers. 

Near the side of this store ran a railroad for the 
transportation of coal from the Gaylord mine to the 
river. It ran along what is now Walnut Street, and 
down the present Gaylord Avenue, where the road bed 
in front of the Armory and where the present Campbell 
buildings are now located, was some six to eight feet 
higher than the natural surface of the ground. The land 
In that locality being swampy, and affording very good 
skating In the winter. 

The cars on this railroad were propelled by gravity 
and emptied into chutes at "Gaylord's Wharf," where 
the coal was loaded into canal boats. This wharf was 
located at a point about where the new bridge starts to 
cross the river. 

Just across this railroad, on the corner opposite the 
Kuschke building, and what is now Hanover Street, 
stood the old Dietrick tavern with its long, covered front 
porch, at the extreme upper end of which was a wooden 
pump. This was the only hotel in town for many years, 
and was kept by George H. Dietrick and later by John 
Deen. One of Mr. Dietrick's daughters became the 
wife of Hon. Samuel G. Turner, State Senator, and 
prominent coal operator. 

Next adjoining the hotel above, and about on the 
site now occupied by the Gas and Electric Light Com- 
pany's office, was a small frame building which was occu- 
pied by William Renshaw as a tailor shop. This spot 
later became the site of a large frame dwelling house 
and tailoring establishment of James McAlarney, who 



28 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

subsequently established a liquor store in it. This build- 
ing, together with the hotel, was destroyed by fire in 
1875 or 1876. 

Mr. McAlarney was one of the prominent and 
progressive citizens of Plymouth. He erected the large 
McAlarney's Hall building in which for a number of 
years he conducted a general store. One of his daugh- 
ters became the wife of Edwin Davenport. 

On the opposite side of the road from this hotel was 
a small frame building occupied by Eli Bittenbender, 
who had formerly lived and kept a shoemaker's shop in 
the Kuschke building, and next above, on the site of 
Davenport's book store, was a one-story building, where 
Querin Krothe, a good natured old German, established 
the first barber shop in town. This building was after- 
wards converted into a drug store, conducted by Dr. C. 
H. Wilson. Just above this, in the building now occupied 
as a saloon by Andrew Fleming, was the cabinetmaker's 
shop of N. A. Stecker, which later was occupied by John 
Dennis, who kept a saloon there for a short time. Mr. 
Stecker was also the express agent of the L. & B. R. R., 
and just prior to the time of the outbreak of the war of 
the rebellion he did quite a thriving business selling daily 
newspapers, which would arrive on the evening train 
from New York and Philadelphia. The depot at that 
time was in a ramshackle old building located about in 
the rear of Dr. Ashley's present residence. The only 
subscribers for daily newspapers in the town prior to 
this time, were Samuel Wadhams and Henderson Gay- 
lord, and people would often wonder how they ever could 
find time to read them, and now, nearly everybody takes 
one, and many two, besides a magazine or two. 

Diagonally across the street from the Stecker build- 
ing and about in the rear of the present Jacobs building, 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 29 

there stood a long black house, in front of which was a 
large willow tree, and where formerly lived Noah Wad- 
hams, son of the Rev. Noah, and which later, I believe, 
was occupied by James Owens, his son-in-law. There 
was a Dr. George Wadhams, a son of Noah, who was 
buried in the Reynolds burying ground in 1848. 

Crossing the street again, on the site now occupied by 
the Ely House block, was a low frame building with a 
long porch and in front of which was a pump. This was 
occupied by Andrew Shupp, who kept a saloon there, and 
was later remodeled and occupied by George P. Richards 
as a dwelling and liquor store. Up to about 1855, I <^o 
not recollect of any other buildings on either side within 
the space from Centre Avenue up to Elm Hill, except a 
small frame building on the upper side of the creek, 
where lived "Squire" George Brown who kept a shoe- 
maker's shop, and the first ice cream and oyster estab- 
lishment I remember in the town. This building was 
located about on or near the site of the present Wool- 
worth stores, and near this spot was formerly the house 
in which Colonel Ransom was captured by the Indians. 
The next was the Miner Nesbitt house in the rear of 
where George Durbin's drug store now is. This was 
where Robert Love lived and died. There was a large 
barn near this house, my earliest recollection of which 
was when I watched Theodore Hendershot hetcheling 
flax there. 

About all the rest of this territory was occupied as 
farming lands. On the lower side of the road where the 
Rooney, and Moore Brothers building now stands, there 
was a large apple orchard. About 1862, the buildings 
between Centre Avenue and the Bull Run Crossing be- 
gan to be erected. From about where the Plymouth Na- 
tional Bank stands and up to the Squire Brown house, 



30 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

there was a board sidewalk on the upper side of the road, 
which stood five or six feet above the level of the road. 
Just above Joseph Switzer's (now Frederick's) furniture 
store, was later, the book store of A. F. Levi, and the 
Post Office kept by his mother; and there was also a 
clothing store kept by Priester & Schloss close by. 

What is now known as Elm Hill, when I was a boy 
was called "Pismire Hill." Mr. John Shonk afterwards 
rechristened it by the more euphonious and aristocratic 
name of "Ant Hill," corrupted into "Anty." It subse- 
quently became known as "Elm Hill," from the old elm 
tree which, until a few years ago occupied a conspicuous 
place on its brow. 

There has been I think, a good deal of uncertain 
myth, and sentimental gush, connected with this tree. It 
shadowed an old black house standing a little way back 
from the road, on the site now occupied by the Elm Hill 
Congregational Church parsonage, and which I believe 
was known as the "Moss" or Morse house. This house 
was occupied by William Jenkins, familiarly known as 
"Major Cobus" ; and for many years after that by his son 
also named William and who was a boat builder. About 
the year 1901, at which time he was upwards of 80 years 
of age, this man told the writer that he remembered that 
tree when it was a small sapling, so, if his story is cor- 
rect, it is quite unlikely that it could have been a whip- 
ping post, if there was such a thing, a hundred or more 
years before. 

Below this house, on the site of the present blacksmith 
shop of Fuller Hendershot, stood for many years, a one- 
story frame school house and about opposite this, I re- 
member having seen long pine timbers elevated on tres- 
tles, vv'here William Jenkins sawed out boat sides. Just 
above the Jenkins homestead, between where Arthur 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 31 

Young recently lived, and the dwelling house and store 
of the late J. W. Weston, was a long row of low black 
buildings, three or four perhaps — and joined together, 
the farthest one up, occupied a short time as a store of 
some kind by the late J. W. Eno. Possibly it was the 
one at the lower end of this row which was called the 
Moss or Morse house above mentioned. Near the site 
of the present Groblewski drug store, formerly the resi- 
dence and butcher shop of Marx Weil, but farther back 
from the road, was another old house with a long porch 
in front where lived Achen Atwell an old time canal boat- 
man. All the rest of the surrounding territory here was 
used as farming lands. 

On the hill farther up the road, on the site of the 
stately residence of the late John J. Shonk and now oc- 
cupied by his daughter, Mrs. C. W. McAlarney, was a 
frame dwelling house occupied I believe by Miner 
Ransom. 

Mr. Shonk was one of the early and most prominent 
residents of the town, and his son Albert is now one of 
its leading and influential citizens. 

On the next lot above the Shonk homestead is yet 
standing, a two-story frame dwelling where lived a man 
named Olewine who moved out West many years ago. 
This house was afterwards for a number of years, the 
residence of Dr. C. H. Wilson. A few yards beyond 
this house many years ago, was the blacksmith shop of 
Hiram Culver, who lived in the house near by and which 
later became the residence for many years of the late 
J. W. Eno. 

The next house above this, and one of the old land- 
marks, was the homestead of Jacob Gould, the ancestor 
of the family of that name. It stood on an eminence 
about opposite the No. 1 1 Breaker of the L. & W. Coal 



32 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

Co., and on the lower side of the road, and near where 
the breaker is, was a large barn and on the same lot I 
think, was an apple orchard. 

"Sammy" Gould used to live in this house, but later 
removed to Beech Grove near Berwick. He was a very 
jovial and rather witty personage, and when on his re- 
turn home from visits to Plymouth, used to cause much 
vexation to the conductors on the L. & B. R. R. by pull- 
ing the bell rope and causing the train to stop opposite 
his residence, which was some distance away from the 
station. 



Chapter V. 

Coal Street — Oliver Davenport — Edwin Davenport — Christopher 
Garrahan — Patrick Cullen — Phoebe Pringle — Carpenter 
Rinus— French's Grist Mill — John Smith — "Aunt" Charry 
Clark — The French Tunnel — Francis J. Smith — Calathum' 
pian Serenades — The Horse Fiddle — ^The "Big Coal Bed" — 
William Dennis — Richard Egbertson — Robt. Davenport — 
Samuel Vanloon — Benj. and Fuller Reynolds — Calvin and 
Samuel Wadhams — Manny Wharram — Benj. Pringle — Sam'l 
Lewis — Sam'l Harrison. 

O ETURNING now to the lower end of town, and go- 
•^ ing up Coal Street, the first house on the right hand 
side of the road, was that of Oliver Davenport. This 
house is yet standing and was occupied by him until the 
time of his death a good many years ago. 

Mr. Davenport was one of the town's prosperous and 
respected farmers. One of his sons, Edwin, late presi- 
dent of the First National Bank, who died in 19 13, was 
the father of former Congressman Hon, Stanley W. and 
of Andrew Livingston, a prominent merchant of Ply- 
mouth and Luzerne ; another son, Dr. Fuller, was a 
member of the U. P. crew which contested with the 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 33 

famous Henley crew in a regatta on the river Thames a 
few years ago. Between this house and the main road 
there was formerly an apple orchard in which was a 
tree of luscious "Sugar Sweets" which in early summer 
was the strong point of attraction for the boys of the 
neighborhood. 

Just above the house, on Coal Street, stood the barn, 
and a little beyond, is a white house where formerly 
lived Christopher Garrahan a well known and respected 
citizen. This house later became the property and resi- 
dence of his son-in-law, Dennison Pringle. Across the 
creek on the left hand side of the road further up, and 
extending down near the grove, was a long double dwell- 
ing house which at an earlier day was occupied by Chris- 
topher Garrahan on the one side, and Patrick Cullen on 
the other. In the latter house there would occasionally 
be held on Sundays, services of the Catholic religion. 
This house was afterwards occupied by Carpenter Rinus. 
At the lower end of this row and just in the grove, was 
the residence of Mrs. Phoebe Pringle. She was a tailoress 
and used to make all of our juvenile clothes, and I recall 
her process of fitting the garments; the rude adjustment 
of position of the patient model, pertinent to her pinning 
and basting operations was truly a trying ordeal. One 
of her daughters married Freeman Polk, a long time re- 
spected citizen of Plymouth. 

A little further up the road beyond this row of houses 
was a small dwelling, the residence of Freeman Samis, 
and across the creek still further up stood the big red 
grist mill of my father. 

This mill was first built to be run by water power 
supplied from a dam, or reservoir just above, but was 
afterwards converted into a steam mill. The sulphur 
water from the mines above soon played havoc with the 



34 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

machinery and it was finally abandoned. This mill build- 
ing was, until quite recent years used as tenement dwell- 
ings but now stands in ruins. 

"The mill wheel has fallen to pieces, Ben Bolt, 
The rafters have tumbled in, 
And a quiet that crawls 'round the wall as you pass, 
Takes the place of the olden din." 

On an elevation just above the mill and beside the 
old dam, was the residence of George Seiple the miller, 
who was succeeded by a Mr. Fisher, and a few yards to 
the southeast yet stands the homestead of my other step- 
grandfather, John Smith, the brother of Abijah and who 
were the pioneer coal operators of the Wyoming Valley. 
In front, and around this house in its spacious yard, were 
numerous black cherry and other fruit trees, and on the 
north side was a thrifty apple orchard and a good spring 
of water. Later this house was occupied by Charity 
("Aunt Charry") Clark, as clever an old soul as ever 
lived. She had three sons, George, William, and Burr, 
and they afterwards removed to Ohio. More recently 
this house was owned and occupied by David Levi, a re- 
spected citizen of Plymouth and at one time prominent 
coal operator. 

John Smith was a man of positive and decisive char- 
acter. It was said of him that at one time he was elected 
or appointed to the office of tax collector contrary to his 
wishes, and that in retaliation for the honor conferred, he 
served notice on the people that on a certain date he 
would call for the taxes and would brook no delay in 
the payment. Probably neither before nor since, was a 
tax duplicate settled up more speedily. 

Just across the creek from the old mill, there is the 
evidence of a tunnel under the hill which my father had 
driven for some distance and I well remember my labori- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 35 

ous efforts In lugging the drills of "Hank" and Munn 
Massaker from there up to Gabriel's shop to be sharp- 
ened, and then back again. Close to the entrance to this 
tunnel, in a little frame house lived the family of Free- 
man Lamoreaux. The driving of this tunnel was aban- 
doned and the one some distance further up was opened, 
near where the L, & W. B. Coal Company's engine house 
now stands. In this tunnel Edward Crowell was killed 
by a fall of rock. 

On the hill to the left, just above this first tunnel, and 
near the site of the old Washington head house and 
plane, and the entrance to the classic precincts of bed bug 
row, stands what remains of the once beautiful home of 
Francis J. Smith. This place was laid out in beautiful 
terraces and was a very attractive spot. He moved to 
Ohio where some of his descendants still reside. Mr. 
John J. Shonk at one time lived in this house. Just op- 
posite, across the creek and at the head of the old dam 
was another quite large dwelling house but I don't re- 
member who lived there. 

Further up the creek on the right hand side were sev- 
eral small houses where lived Zeph. Barber and Mrs. 
Partington and Munn Massaker. On the left side of the 
road, and just above the engine house before mentioned, 
was a small house occupied by a man I think, named 
Aaron Young, who was killed in a fist fight while parti- 
cipating in a Calathumpian serenade given to Ira Daven- 
port in celebration of his marriage. This house was at 
one time occupied by Fred Myers, father of the late 
Robert Myers. 

In reference to these Calathumpian serenades, honors 
which it was not uncommon to tender to newly married 
couples, — one of the principal musical instruments of the 
band was the "horse fiddle," which I believe is now a 



36 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

forgotten instrument of melody. Its construction con- 
sisted of an open topped dry goods box with a well ros- 
ined board or rail for a bow, and when vigorously 
wielded across the top of the box would send forth notes 
of melody both horrible and terrible. 

Continuing on, a little further up to the extreme end 
of the road was the "Big Coal Bed" which was opened 
by the Smith brothers about the year 1807. Here are 
several enormous openings or caverns in the side of the 
mountain, where we boys used to go to get soft pieces of 
stones or slate to make slate pencils. Through one of these 
large openings which are now almost completely closed 
with fallen rocks and debris, teams would enter, the 
driver, with lamp in hand, leading the horses far in to 
the breast, or place where the miners were at work, 
where the team would be turned and the wagon loaded 
and then driven to the river bank, the coal to be loaded 
into canal boats. I have often ridden into this mine in 
the wagons and watched the operations, my father being 
the operator of the mine. 

Coming back down the road, about half way to the 
old mill, is a bridge leading to a road which runs past 
the school house on "Temperance Hill," Turning 
abruptly to the left, on the right hand side of the road- 
way was the residence of Henry Massaker, and then 
came a stone house, the residence of William Dennis, an 
old and respected resident, who gave the locality the 
name it now bears. A little beyond, was another stone 
building, the residence of Richard Egbertson where he 
lived for many years and where afterwards resided his 
son Henderson, who was a painter. Richard Egbertson 
was a stone mason and plasterer by trade, and withal, I 
used to think a very wonderful fisherman. He could sta- 
tion himself on the river bank where no one else would 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 37 

think of fishing, cast in his lines, and invariably catch a 
big string of large fish. The manner of plastering a 
house in those days, before plastering laths were in- 
vented, was to tack a thin board on the ceiling or side of 
the room to be plastered, and then with a hatchet and 
wooden wedge, make interstices in the board to receive 
and hold the plaster. Evidences of this method may still 
be found in the old buildings. 

Passing on, beyond the school house was a row of 
red houses, story and a half high, where lived George 
Puterbaugh and Wesley Lewis. Some distance further 
on, on the corner of Davenport Street and Shawnee Ave- 
nue, stood the mansion house, with its spacious grounds 
and towering elms of Robert Davenport one of the earl- 
iest residents of Plymouth. He was the father of Samuel 
Davenport. A little beyond was the two-story dwelling 
with the wide porch in front, of Samuel Vanloon, a pros- 
perous farmer and one time County Sheriff. He had a 
large family of boys, of whom not one I believe are now 
living. Beyond this, stood his barns and sheds, and then 
came those of Benjamin Reynolds another old time and 
prominent resident. Mr. Reynolds' residence was on the 
upper side of the road, where afterwards his son J. 
Fuller, lived for many years. The present structure re- 
places the original building, which burned down some 
time during the early 50s, and within recent years was the 
residence of Oscar Lance. The widow of Mr. Fuller 
Reynolds, a very amiable woman, died quite recently at 
a very advanced age, in Scranton, where some of their 
children now reside and occupy positions of prominence. 

Still further on, on the corner of Academy Street and 
Shawnee Avenue, stood the old colonial mansion house, 
with its broad piazza and spacious hallways, of Calvin 
Wadhams, a pioneer resident of Plymouth and which for 



38 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

many years was the residence of his son Samuel, the 
father of Elijah. The large lot laid out in terraces, and 
planted with ample shade and ornamental trees and 
shrubs, extended down to the creek. On the side and near 
the kitchen was the wash house, and next to the road was 
an ice house, and on the opposite corner stood the car- 
riage house. On the upper side stood a number of barns, 
sheds and store houses for grain, etc. Mr, Wadhams 
was a prosperous farmer, and both he and his son, were 
for many years prominent and influential men of the 
town, Elijah being at one time a member of the State 
Senate. 

Some twenty or more years ago, the Plymouth Plan- 
ing Mill Company reshingled this house, and it was 
found that the old shingles had been nailed on with hand 
forged nails. In early days, houses were built to last, 
and this one, although it has been changed in appearance 
and altered to suit the requirements of tenants, is appar- 
ently in as good condition as ever. A little farther to the 
east was the story and a half house, which for many years 
was the residence of Emanuel Wharram, Mr. Wadhams' 
English farmer. He had a large family and moved to 
Ohio a good many years ago and where some of his 
descendants yet reside. 

Up on the hill from the Wadhams house and I be- 
lieve somewhere in the vicinity of the present Shawnee 
Cemetery, was the residence of Benjamin Pringle another 
old Plymouth resident. He had two daughters, one 
named Martha, and the other. Bertha or Berthia. Not 
far from the location of this house was the residence of 
Samuel Lewis, an old resident, and where later lived 
Samuel Harrison whose daughter married Clayton 
Young. 




THE OLD ACADEMY 



Chapter VI. 

Early Religious Services — The Old Academy — Lorenzo Dow — 
Great Religious Revival — Revs. Miles and Snowden — Pres- 
byterians — A Personal Episode and Erection of a Church — 
First Church Edifice — Christian Church — Early Ministers of 
— Early Schools and Teachers — The Bachelor's Club^ — ^Their 
Rules and Proceedings — Benj. Parke — Other Teachers — 
Corporal Punishment — The Old Lecture Room School House 
— ^The Spelling School. 

THE first church building to be erected in Plymouth 
was undoubtedly the old Academy. Prior to its 
erection, Col. Wright in his history of Plymouth says, 
that religious services were held in private houses. I 
have already mentioned where the few Catholics in the 
town sometimes held their services in the house of Pat- 
rick Cullen, and I have been told that John Madden 
taught the Catholic children their catechism in his house 
next to the Turner store. 

The Old Academy — now transformed into dwell- 
ings — was erected, probably by common contributions, 
some time in the beginning of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury. The entrance was by high stone steps facing 
Academy street, and leading to a wide vestibule, on 
either side of which were stairs leading to the second 
story which was fitted up with high backed benches for 
pews, which extended on each side from the centre aisle 
to the wall. In the centre of the aisle were several 
wooden columns to support the ceiling, the columns ex- 
tending the length of the aisle, at the eastern end of 
which was the high pulpit with a ballustred stairway of 
some eight or ten steps on the side ascending into it. In 
front of, and a few feet distant from the pulpit, on a 
raised platform was a picket fence enclosing perhaps two 
thirds the space in front. At short intervals along the 
walls hung the sconces or candle holders, which at even- 



40 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

ing services the members of the congregation were ex- 
pected to supply with tallow candles. I remember of 
having attended some of those meetings with my mother 
who would take with her, her quota of illuminating ma- 
terial. The collection bags, or pockets of black velvet, 
were attached to the ends of long red poles whereby the 
toll gatherers would be enabled to collect pennies from 
the sinners seated on the farthest ends of the benches. 

The first story of the building was divided into two 
sections, and fitted up with long desks and benches, and 
a blackboard on the wall for school purposes. 

Tradition says, that before this building was entirely 
completed, Lorenzo Dow, — a kind of Billy Sunday — 
traveling evangelist, held revival services there, and on 
account of the large audiences he drew, some fear was 
felt regarding the safety of the building. The memory 
of Mr. Dow is still perpetuated in the names of some of 
the children of his admirers. It is probably about this 
period, that a great religious fervor overspread the val- 
ley. The coming of the millennium, and the date set for 
the destruction of the world was predicted, and it was 
said that some prospective saints had their ascension 
robes prepared for the occasion. 

In my early years I do not remember of any regular 
church services being held there, the building was free for 
the use of any denomination who wished to make use of 
it. Rev. Geo. D. Miles, an Episcopalian minister of 
WIlkes-Barre used to preach occasionally on Sunday af- 
ternoons, and on other occasions ministers of other de- 
nominations would hold services on Sunday mornings, 
and sometimes evenings, and usually there were Sunday 
Schools quite regularly held; but until some time after 
the Presbyterian Communicants under the guidance of 
Rev. E. H. Snowden were organized as a congregation 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 41 

in 1856, and after the M. E. Church was erected, there 
were I believe, no regular services held there. 

The old Academy was for many years, the only place 
in the town where public assemblies of any kind could be 
properly held, it was in fact the public hall, and there, 
were held political rallies, meetings for discussion of mat- 
ters of public interest, lectures for educational purposes 
or profit, and even shows were wont to be held there. 
I remember of an Indian show being held there, and on 
one occasion an Irish comedian called "Dublin Dan," was 
obliged to hold two performances on the same evening 
in order to accommodate his audiences. 

In this connection, while it may appear self-laudatory, 
perhaps out of place, and withal not entirely commend- 
able, yet, it being a matter of unwritten history I feel 
constrained to relate a personal incident which goes to 
prove the truth of the saying, that out of evil sometimes 
good will grow. 

Some time about the year 1865, there was some kind 
of a gathering of the congenial young people of the 
town, — perhaps a Fourth of July picnic — at which Mosc 
Wadhams, — the brother of Elijah, — and myself were the 
ringleaders. It was decided that we would wind up the 
festivities of the day with a dance in the evening. There 
being no other available or desirable place in town where 
we could go, and the Academy being a public hall, we 
fixed upon that as the place, and accordingly in the even- 
ing, there we assembled with Wm. Hatcher and his 
fiddle. The space between the pulpit and the benches was 
ample for the formation of two sets of quadrilles and 
there we spent the evening. 

I was engaged at the time in Wadhams' store which, 
like other stores at that time, was a rendezvous for the 
gathering of congenial spirits in the evenings. On the 



42 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

evening following this escapade, there were assembled in 
the store Deacon Chas. Hutchinson, Bryce R. Blair, 
Robt. Love, Tom Macfarlane and perhaps one or two 
others. I was seated at the desk and before long Mr. 
Hutchinson launched forth on the enormity of the of- 
fence which had been perpetrated in the house of God 
the evening before. I felt the poignancy of his shafts 
which I realized were leveled at my head but discreetly 
kept silent. After the matter had been fully discussed 
in all its heinous phases, Mr. Blair declared that it was 
a shame that the Presbyterian congregation which was 
large enough, could not have a place of their own where 
they could worship in peace and safety, and promised 
that he would see to it that they would have such a place, 
and turning to me he dictated a form of subscription list 
for that purpose. I wrote out two of these and he took 
one, and the next morning started out to canvass down- 
town; the other one I think Mr. Hutchinson took to 
canvass uptown, and Wilkes-Barre. In a short time there- 
after enough subscriptions were obtained to warrant the 
commencement of the erection of the present church and 
parsonage in 1866. I have since entertained a lingering 
hope that my indirect instrumentality, by this sacriligous 
act, in further extending the influence of Christianity 
would, in some measure serve as an atonement for my 
many sins and delinquencies. 

The first church edifice to be erected after that of 
the Academy I believe was the Methodist Church, of 
which I have before given a description. The most 
active, if not the earliest organized sect, however, was 
that of the Christian congregation. They were organ- 
ized in 1834 and their present church edifice was erected 
in 1857 by H. R. Noll, of Lewisburg, Pa., and who after-, 
wards married Miss Almina Davenport, daughter of the 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 43 

late Samuel Davenport. Among the early and active 
ministers of that congregation, I recall the names of 
Elders Lane, Richmond, Montgomery, Hyatt, Hayes, 
Clark, and last. Rev. Knipp, to whose efforts are due the 
added improvements to the church and the erection of 
their new parsonage on the site of the one which for 
many years has stood on Shawnee Avenue. 

It would be too much of an undertaking to attempt 
to describe the many other handsome churches of differ- 
ent denominations that have since been erected through- 
out the town; but the largest and most pretentious one 
is that of the Catholic denomination erected under the 
auspices of Rev. T. J. Donahoe on Church Street, a very 
large and valuable property. 

My earliest recollection of the schools of Plymouth 
dates back to those kept in the Academy. Col. Wright 
in his historical sketches speaks of a schoolhouse located 
on Elm Hill which was torn down about 1815. He 
also gives the names of some of the early teachers in the 
old Academy, one of whom, Thos. Patterson, I have 
often heard my mother and my aunt speak of in terms 
of high commendation. There was another one, how- 
ever, named Benjamin Parke whom I have heard spoken 
of by old people, and who singularly enough he does 
not mention, although he evidently taught there in 1825 
and was one of his associates. 

I have in my possession an old record book of a 
literary society, organized at that time, and of which 
apparently, Mr. Parke was the leading spirit. The mem- 
bers of that society were: Benjamin Parke, Wm. C. Rey- 
nolds, H. B. Wright, C. A. Reynolds, Luther Nesbitt, 
Samuel French, Samuel Wadhams, E. Chamberlin, C. 
Atherton, Caleb Wright, H. Gaylord, Adnah Atherton 
and G. D. Turner. 



44 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

The following extracts from the records of that 
society, which are mostly written in beautiful penman- 
ship, apparently by Mr. Parke, will no doubt be of 
interest. On the outside of the paper cover of the book 
was the motto of the society, all except the first two lines 
of which are obliterated and are : 

Of birth or blood we cannot boast, 
Nor gentry does our club afford. 

The record reads, "On Friday the i6th of September, 
1825, a number of young men met at the store of Gay- 
lord and Reynolds, and agreed to form themselves into 
a society to be called the Bachelors Club of Plymouth; 
a system of regulations were adopted; Benjamin Parke 
was chosen President for the next meeting, which is to 
be on Wednesday the 21st inst." 

The rules and regulations of the club, which are 
rather stringent, declared: "This club shall not consist 
of more than 16 members, two-thirds of whom shall be 
Bachelors. Meetings to be held weekly. The object of 
the society, "mental improvement," for which purpose at 
every meeting a question upon some subject shall be fairly 
and candidly discussed, speeches limited to 30 minutes 
at a time." Religion and politics were disbarred from 
discussion, and "No profane, obscene or indecent lan- 
guage, or irreverent treatment of the sacred Scriptures 
to be tolerated," and "No member on any pretence what- 
ever shall reveal any of the secrets of this society, or 
mention them to any but members; and particularly if 
any one shall do it with a view to ridicule or laugh at 
any of the rest of the members, he shall be expelled, the 
society and the members requested to avoid him as a 
friend or comrade." 

No member could be admitted without "the unani- 
mous consent of all the members present." Any trans- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 45 

gression of the rules were punishable for "the first offence 
by reprimand by the President, for the second, silenced 
for the evening, and for the third, expulsion." The 
President and four members had the power to transact 
any "common business of the club," but a majority of the 
members were necessary to expel a member. The time 
of meeting was half-past six o'clock and any member who 
was not present at 7 o'clock without a sufficient excuse, 
was to be fined 6}i cents, and the President was to "pay 
I2y2 cents for non-attendance at any time." 

In accordance with their agreement, their first meeting 
was held on Wednesday, September 21st, 1825, when 
they "agreed to discuss the following question: 'Do the 
highest class of people enjoy more happiness than the 
lowest?' " Decided in the negative. 

Other questions discussed at subsequent meetings, and 
which may serve as interesting subjects of discussion by 
the present generation, were: 

"Is avarice a worse vice than intemperance?" 
"Do mankind derive more pleasure and happiness from 

anticipation than participation?" 

"Is the prodigal a greater nuisance to society than the 

miser?" 

The next two questions may perhaps be of interest 

to the female suffragists : 

"Do outward accomplishments tend more to inspire love 
toward the female sex, than real worth?" Argument and ques- 
tion decided in the negative. 

"Would a widow at the age of 30, make a better wife than 
a maid of the same age?" Argument and question decided in the 
negative. 

This last question, discussed November 29th, appar- 
ently "busted up" the club, for they do not appear to 
have held any further meetings. 

Benjamin Parke afterwards became a very prominent 



46 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

Royal Arch Mason, and in i860 was the presiding officer 
of the Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania of Royal Arch 
Masons. 

The earliest teachers in the Academy within my recol- 
lection were Geo. W. Freeman, who boarded at my 
mother's when I was quite young; other names I recall 
were Dibble and Turner; the latter was called "little 
Turner," on account of his diminutive size and whom I 
remember particularly as being an inveterate user of to- 
bacco and for lack of a cuspidor would expectorate on 
the floor by his seat. I have no remembrance of any 
other than the common branches of learning having been 
taught. Quill pens were used for writing, the teacher 
with his "pen-knife" keeping the pens in order. It was 
some little time after I had begun to write that steel pens 
came into use. The public school system was then in its 
infancy, and there was much prejudice in the minds of 
many against "free schools." The minimum length of 
the school term was four months. The common methods 
of maintaining proper discipline was by means of a ruler 
applied on the hand, or by the use of a good sized cudgel 
cut from a tree or bush, which would frequently, at un- 
expected times and on inopportune occasions fall heavily 
across the shoulders of the transgressor, and for very 
serious offences the guilty one would be required to step 
out on the floor and remove his coat. Sometimes on 
these occasions stubborn resistance would be offered on 
the part of the culprit, and then a struggle would ensue 
which, if it did not inspire terror, would afford a sort of 
diversion for the boys. 

The little schoolhouse located at the corner of Coal 
and Main Streets with which I am more familiar, mention 
of which has heretofore been made, was moved when I 
was quite young, to a position directly opposite my father's 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 47 

house, where for many years the young ideas were taught 
to sprout. This building was fitted up with a high pulpit 
on a raised platform at the far end, on each side of which 
were long desks with benches, and transverse rows of 
desks and benches extending down the room on both sides 
of the aisle; and in front of and facing the pulpit were 
recitation seats. This was also called the "Lecture 
room," I don't know why, unless to give it a distinctive 
name, for I don't remember of any lectures being given 
there, although there may have been. Religious services 
were held there in later years by a Welsh congregation. 
Among the names of early teachers here I can only 
recall those of a man named Brown who ran away with 
his wife's sister; one named Box, and one I think named 
Curtis, and Miss Julia Reynolds. The most familiar 
and popular one, however, was James Garrahan, late of 
Dallas. He held the position for a number of winters. 

One of the prominent and favorite features of the 
schools of those days, and one I think that could be fol- 
lowed with great advantage to the pupils of to-day, was 
the "Spelling School." These would be held sometimes 
as concluding exercise of the week, and frequently on an 
evening, when they were occasions of very great interest, 
and always drew a crowded house. The custom was to 
choose two recognized good spellers as leaders and con- 
testants, who would range themselves on opposite sides of 
the room, which had previously been arranged for the oc- 
casion, and they would choose their spellers promiscuously 
from the audience. The ones so selected would take their 
places on the floor as called, beside their respective leader 
until the lines extended the entire length of the room in 
equal numbers. Then the teacher would announce to one 
of the leaders the word to be spelled and if spelled cor- 
rectly, the next word would be given to his opponent and 



48 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

so on alternately down the line. In case of a miss in 
spelling the delinquent would take his or her seat and 
the line would close up. The side which remained stand- 
ing, or were not "spelled down" at the close of the con- 
test were declared the winners. There were some extra- 
ordinary good spellers in those days, and these occasional 
contests created much friendly rivalry among the scholars 
and it was considered quite a compliment to be selected 
as a "speller." 

At one term of school I remember of having attended 
there, "Newt" Smith selected the pulpit as his seat, and 
frequently when the teacher's back would be turned he 
would amuse the audience with his antics. 

This old schoolhouse was in recent years converted 
into the ignominious and base purpose of a tool and oil 
house by the L. & W. B. Coal Co., but has now entirely 
disappeared, and such is fame. 



Chapter VI I. 

Farming Methods — Threshing and Marketing Grain — Flax In- 
dustry — The Old Spinning Wheels — Dipping Candles — Grist 
Mills — Coal Industry — Building of Arks and Boats — Shaw- 
nee Against the World — Origin of Slogan — Methods of Pre- 
paring and Shipping Coal — Old Records — Coal Markets — 
Cost of Mining and Selling — Prices for Coal — Hard Times 
— Deplorable Conditions — ^Wages and Cost of Commodities. 

"DEFORE the coal industry was developed, and Ply- 
^-^ mouth had become a mining town, farming was the 
principal, if not the only occupation of the inhabitants. 
The broad fertile acres of the Shawnee Flats, and the 
stony and less productive fields on the mountain and hill- 
sides furnished employment for nearly everybody. Wages 
for good farm hands would average about seventy-five 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 49 

cents a day, and the hours of labor were from sun to 
sun, and then came the ordinary "chores" about the barn 
and house — caring for the animals and getting in the fire- 
wood and coal. 

Hay and grain when I was a boy were all cut with 
scythe and cradle, and one of my youthful tribulations I 
well remember in that connection, was the task of turning 
the grindstone to sharpen those detested implements. 
Wages during the haying and harvesting season rose 
from a dollar to a dollar and a quarter a day which was 
considered almost fabulous, but swinging a scythe or 
cradle all day was very hard work. 

On these occasions it was a very common custom, and 
indeed was expected to have a bottle of whiskey stand 
beside the water jug in the field, and about ten o'clock a 
generous luncheon would be carried to the harvesters. On 
these particular occasions the labor of providing for a 
gang of ravenous workmen, and in fact, on many other 
days of the year, the women of the household did not 
enjoy what in vulgar parlance is now called a "snap." 

While I have no distinct recollection of how or where 
flax was cultivated, that it was one of the important 
features of agricultural industry and domestic manufac- 
ture there can be no doubt. I have often witnessed and 
participated in the process of "breaking and hetcheling 
flax." The plant which grew to about the size of tim- 
othy grass, having a hard and woody exterior or bark, 
was first passed through the "flax break" which in con- 
struction resembled somewhat a shaving horse or bench, 
with a long wooden spring handle or hammer, and manip- 
ulated by hand power. This machine would break up the 
hard woody stem when it would be drawn through the 
hetchel — a board or block filled with long iron teeth 



50 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

something like a comb — which would remove the coarse 
material and tow from the fibre or flax. 

I have a distinct remembrance, when I was quite a 
large boy, of wearing a blue checked suit of linen 
clothes of my mother's manufacture of which I was very 
proud. 

The wool industry was a very important factor in the 
domestic economy, and the whirr and buzz of the old 
spinning wheel was a very familiar sound in many of the 
dwellings. The wool having been properly prepared by 
means of some now forgotten process, into long slender 
strings or rolls, these were singly connected to the end of 
a long iron or steel spindle which was made to swiftly 
revolve by means of a large wooden wheel; the spinner 
holding the roll in her left hand would walk slowly back- 
ward and forward, drawing the twisted thread to the end 
of the roll and then retracing her steps in winding it on 
the spindle, a process necessarily involving a great many 
steps in the course of a day's spinning. 

When the spindle was filled with yarn it would be 
wound on the arms of a reel, which, after making a 
certain number of revolutions would record a click, indi- 
cating the completion of a knot or skein. There were 
several other implements or machines employed in the 
process of manufacture and preparation, one of which 
was called a "swift," but their uses, and even their respec- 
tive appellations are now long forgotten and it is doubt- 
ful whether many now living can remember them. After 
the yarn by various processes had been manipulated into 
the required form, it was consigned to the dye tub to 
receive whatever color pleased the fancy. All the various 
processes of this once familiar domestic industry can now 
be safely relegated among the lost arts, along with those 
of making soap and starch and mince pies. 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 51 

There was yet another very important industry of 
home consumption which deserves mention, that of the 
manufacture of dipped tallow candles which were the 
principal, and in fact often the only convenient effective 
means of illumination in early days, although I have 
heard of instances of fat pine knots being used for that 
purpose. 

The modus operandi of dipping candles was to slip 
the loop of the cotton wicks which had been cut to the 
desired lengths, on to slim elder stalks or round wooden 
rods of about two feet in length, say six or eight wicks 
on each rod. These would be arranged on horizontal 
supports holding perhaps a dozen or more rods. The 
operator, seated by the side of the frame supporting the 
rods, and within easy reaching distance, beginning at one 
end, would lift the rods and slowly dip the wicks into a 
pot of hot tallow by her side, and by the time the end of 
the frame was reached the tallowed wicks would be suffi- 
ciently hardened to repeat the process, and thus, by slow 
degrees, the candles, like icicles, would grow to the de- 
sired size, and they were much more desirable and lasting 
than those of the moulded variety. 

The many progressive stages made within the last 
hundred years in methods of illumination, successively 
from tallow dips and dirty whale oil lamps, to danger- 
ous camphine or burning fluid, and kerosene to gas, and 
finally, the wonderful perfection attained, and the saving 
of labor afforded through means of the magic electric 
button device, can scarcely be realized and appreciated 
by the present generation. 

After the crops had been all gathered, and the fall 
work completed, then just before the holiday season 
came the butchering, and after that threshing of grain, 
which was sometimes done by having the horses and colts 



52 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

tramp over it on the barn floor, but was more largely 
done by means of the flail, the threshers receiving their 
pay in grain, the amount thereof being governed by the 
number of bushels threshed. 

In the early days Easton was the principal market 
place for the farmers' products which were mostly hauled 
there on sleds during the winter season, but at the time 
of which I write the millers and merchants of the valley 
were the principal customers. There being no bakers' 
shops in those days, every household baked their own 
bread, cakes and pies. The grain for the flour and meal 
was taken to the mill to be ground, the miller receiving 
his pay therefor in tolls which he deducted. 

It was not an unusual custom to carry small grists to 
the mill on horseback, the sack being thrown across the 
horse's back in front of the rider. 

I have heard it said, but I can't vouch for the truth 
of it, that some riders, in order to balance the bag on the 
horse's back, would put a stone of equal weight in the 
other end. 

The mills to which the grain would be taken to be 
ground into flour or meal, besides the one of my father's 
already mentioned, were Shupp's mill up near the present 
L. & B. Railroad junction; Pugh's mill, which was located 
a short distance up Harvey's Creek, and Raub's and 
Dorrance's mills in Mill Hollow, now Luzerne Borough. 
All of these mills I think were run by water power. There 
was another mill up Wadham's Creek but that did not 
pretend to do much business. I have taken grists to all 
of these mills. 

The coal industry as has been previously noted, com- 
menced here in 1807 by the Smith brothers, at what was 
generally known as the "Big Coal Bed" on Coal Street, 
the coal being hauled on wagons down to wharves on the 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 53 

river bank where it was loaded, at first on arks, and later, 
after the North Branch Canal was built, into canal boats. 

The principal roads to the river over which the coal 
was hauled was one just above the Samuel Davenport 
store; another, at the corner of which stood C. E. 
Young's house; both of these roads leading to my father's 
wharf. One by Turner's store leading to Turner's and 
Ransom's wharves, and yet another, near the present M. 
E. parsonage and leading to Wadham's wharf. All of 
these roads are now closed up and but little evidence, if 
any, remains of their former existence. 

The arks, which I have mentioned, and I believe also 
most of the flat bottomed boats used in transporting the 
coal to market, were built in what was called the "basin," 
a natural formation of the land situated near Wadham's 
Creek between Gabriel's blacksmith shop and the river, 
which every spring, at the time of high water would fill 
up, when the arks or boats could be floated down the 
creek to the river. 

Those flat-bottomed boats came to be known all along 
the line of the canal as "Shawnee boats," and by reason 
of the progressive and aggressive qualities of their re- 
spective crews, I believe originated the familiar watch- 
word of "Shawnee against the world." 

The method of preparing and shipping coal to mar- 
ket in those early days was very simple. There were but 
two recognized sizes of coal, "coarse or lump," and "fine 
coal." The former size was just as it came from the 
mine, in lumps often as large as one or two men could 
handle, and the latter, perhaps as large as a man's two 
hands down to chestnut size, or what would not easily 
pass through the meshes of a "screen shovel." The coal 
was hauled from the mine to the river and piled on the 
bank and from thence loaded into boats with wheelbar- 



54 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

rows. All pieces of slate were thrown out, and that on 
the large lumps removed with a pick. This primitive 
method of preparing coal was, in some respects, superior 
to those of the present day, in that there was at least 
some pretentions made of honesty. Nowadays the slate 
is ground up and skillfully mixed with the coal for weight 
and everything goes. 

The use of arks for the transportation of coal was 
probably abandoned about the year 1840. I have in my 
possession an old account book which was kept by my 
father, in which there is a credit of $24.00 given to 
Adnah Atherton for "building an ark" in 1838, and in 
1839 ^ credit of $25.00 was given to Daniel Gardiner 
for a like service. In February, 1841, is a record of 
"boat sides" being hauled by Samuel Vanloon, and an- 
other of "slitting railing for boat" by Alba Bangs, and 
also of "boat plank" having been purchased. 

In April of that year begins the first record of coal 
being shipped by boats. The average boat load was sixty 
tons and was shipped to Bloomsburg, Danville, Harris- 
burg, Columbia, Lancaster, Marietta, Milton and other 
points, the principal market, however, being Danville, 
to Peter Baldy for his furnaces. 

The coal industry during the 40's evidently did not 
yield enormous dividends. The miner received 43/^ 
cents a ton for digging, and about the same price was 
paid for boating service to Danville. A cargo of 60 
tons delivered there in 1841 was sold for $2.25 a ton, or 
$135. The cost of the same was: 

For Mining $26.00 

Boating Service . . . 26.55 
Canal Tolls 16.31 $68.86 

Apparent profit $66.14 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. ^s 

But in that apparent profit no account is taken of roy- 
alty for coal, the cost of carting from the mine to the 
river, or the loading into boats; so the net profit was 
considerably less than 50 cents a ton. 

On a cargo of 57 tons sent to Harrisburg, the cost 
of boating was $87.74 or $1.54 a ton, and the canal tolls 
were $70. On another cargo of 58 tons to Marietta, the 
cost of running was $1.00 a ton, and the tolls $53.54- 

During those years there seemed to be no stable or 
fixed price for coal in the markets. The operators ap- 
parently were glad to sell their production at whatever 
price they could get for it. Thus, in 1841, while the cost 
of mining, and delivery remained the same, it was sold at 
Bloomsburg for $1.50 a ton. From about 1842 to 1846 
it sold in Danville for $1.87)4 and $1.75, at Columbia 
for $1.25, and Marietta for $1.80 per ton, and in many 
instances was largely paid for in general merchandise, 
horses and buggies, pork, pigs, iron pots and kettles, 
earthenware, whiskey, in fact in almost any or everything 
that could be utilized in the ordinary process of living. 
Those indeed were strenuous times of living. The State 
government had embarked in the banking business and in 
internal improvements, the building of canals and rail- 
roads almost indiscriminately, and for which purpose 
loans had been negotiated, the interest on which was 
provided for by further loans. 

In 1839 David R. Porter was installed as Governor, 
and he found the government at the mercy of wily poli- 
ticians and dishonest contractors. The country was 
flooded with State banknotes, many of which would not 
stay good over night. Monies obtained by loans for pro- 
jected improvements and necessary repairs thereto, had 
been ruthlessly squandered or stolen, and the purposes 
for which the money had been borrowed, ignored or 



^6 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

neglected, with the treasury bankrupt, and in 1843 ^^^ 
State was unable to pay the interest on her loans. 

Wages of workmen from about 1839 to 1848 ranged 
from 50 to 75 cents a day, and they received their pay 
mostly in household necessaries, which were largely sup- 
plied from the private family stores of the employer. 

Prices of flour during this period ranged from five 
to eight dollars a barrel; coal at retail $1.56 a load de- 
livered; a load estimated at one and a quarter tons; coffee 
15 to 17 cents a pound; tea, $1,123^ a pound; salt and 
smoked meats, 10 cents; butter, 17 cents; sugar, 1 1 to 
12^ cents; molasses, 62^ to 75 cents; whale oil, 6^ to 
75 cents a gallon; powder, $2.75 a keg; potatoes, 25 to 
31 cents a bushel; wheat, $i.i2>^, and corn, 56 cents a 
bushel. 



Chapter VIII. 

Early Coal Operators and Mines — Choke Island — Broderick and 
Conyngham's Troubles — Exit of Individual Operators and the 
Entrance of Corporations — Capture of Fugitive Slaves — Bru- 
talities of the Fugitive Slave Law — Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

A MONG the early coal operations in Plymouth, the 
-^^ Gaylord mine and railroad has already been de- 
scribed. There was another similar railroad extending 
to the river which is now known as the Bull Run Rail- 
road, and on which the cars were propelled by gravity 
from the old mine now owned by the D. & H. Co. and 
located in Poke Hollow. This mine, I think, was first 
operated by WiUiam Patton, and afterwards by David 
Levi, who also conducted a store near the mine, and 
whose first stock of merchandise was negotiated for by 
my father. Later, Messrs. Charles Bennett, A. J. Davis, 
and a man from New Jersey named James Martin, came 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 57 

into control under the firm name of Bennett, Davis & 
Co., and they were succeeded by Mr. J. C. Fuller. The 
old "mud tunnel" up the road leading to "Jersey Hill" 
was operated a short time, I think, by the Turners. In 
1846 there was an operation somewhere here, conducted 
for a short time by E. Bulkley, Caleb Shonk and Draper 
Smith, and called the Draper Smith tunnel. I have been 
unable to locate that mine unless it may have been the one 
just above the first French tunnel on Coal Street, or the 
mud tunnel which was in operation on a small scale about 
that period. A little way southwest of the mud tunnel 
was the Ransom coal bed, which was abandoned before 
my remembrance. Michael Shonk was killed in this mme 
in 1846 (the father of John J. Shonk). 

The Jersey coal mine, which is now under lease to 
the D. L. and W. R. R. Co., was first opened by Joseph 
Wright, and was later operated by my father until the late 
50's when it was operated by Robert Love and the Hutch- 
inson brothers as Robert Love and Co. They built a rail- 
road and plane on which cars were run by gravity down 
to Chutes near the L. & B. R. R., at a point on the 
main road a little way below, or west of present Wright 
slope and fan house. It was from those Chutes that the 
first cars of coal were hauled over the L. & B. R. R. 
from Plymouth, about 1855 or 1856. 

One of the early coal mines to be opened in this 
locality was the famous "Grand Tunnel" mine opened 
by Freeman Thomas — Col. Wright says — about 1828. 
It is located at the place named from it — Grand Tunnel. 

About the year 1852 or 1853 this mine began to be 
operated by Mr. William L. Lance, who later became 
one of the most progressive and prominent citizens of 
Plymouth. The coal from this mine was run into 
Chutes on the river bank near by, and then loaded into 



58 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

boats. In the river, about opposite the mouth of this 
mine, there was a small island formed, which Mr. Lance 
desired to utilize in his operations, but Jamison Harvey, 
whose coal mine was on the land adjoining the Grand 
Tunnel, claimed the ownership of it. They met on the 
island, and after wrangling over the matter, Mr. Harvey 
seized Lance by the throat and ejected him. The island 
thereafter was known by the name of "Choke Island." 

Mr. Lance continued to operate this mine for several 
years when he was succeeded by a firm or company styled 
the New England Coal Co., whose manager was a man 
named Brown, from Boston, and who kept a bachelor's 
hall while here, in the old Samuel Ransom homestead. 

This mine property later came into the possession of 
the Susquehanna Coal Co., and the coal therefrom being 
removed through other openings, the Grand Tunnel was 
abandoned. The Jamison Harvey mine, next adjoining 
the Grand Tunnel property, was operated in the same 
manner by Mr. Harvey for a number of years, when it 
also passed into the possession of the Susquehanna Coal 
Co. 

The Nottingham shaft, owned mostly by the Rey- 
nolds heirs and members of the Nottingham Coal Co., 
was sunk, and the large breaker built during the middle 
sixties, under the management of Mr. Bryce R. Blair, 
who was formerly connected with the L. & B. R. R. 
This mine was first operated by Messrs. Thomas Brod- 
erick and Thomas D. Conyngham of Wilkes-Barre. They 
struggled along for several years until they were com- 
pelled, by reason of the troublesome and petty annoy- 
ances caused them by their employes, to sell out their 
interests to the L. & W. B. Coal Co. Strange as it may 
appear, those obstructive tactics on the part of the em- 
ployes who were receiving generous wages, were engi- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 59 

neered largely, if not entirely, by men "to the manor 
born," whose former lives had been one of constant 
struggle with the hardships, privations and environments 
of dire poverty, but had, under the vicious teachings and 
influence of demagogues and dangerous labor agitators, 
become imbued with the idea that the servant should be 
master and rule with autocratic power. Almost every 
day at that mine a strike would be inaugurated, based on 
some trivial and ridiculous cause, and when that was lack- 
ing, when the employes would assemble in the morning, 
it is a notorious fact that often a stone, wet on both 
sides, would be tossed up to decide whether or not they 
should resume work for the day, the wet side winning. 
Mr. Broderick, the manager, a very honorable and fair- 
dealing man, would almost invariably grant every conces- 
sion demanded, only to learn the next day that some new 
grievance would arise, and it became proverbial for him 
to inquire each morning, before arriving at the mine, 
"what new grievance is there to settle to-day." 

Similarly, Mr. Broderick's unfortunate and disastrous 
experience has been that of many other individual oper- 
ators, until finally the management of the coal industry 
has generally passed into the control of powerful cor- 
porations able to combat all difficulties, and yet, some of 
those who were responsible for the change wonder why 
these soulless corporations are so stern and heartless in 
their control. 

The Wadhams coal mine up Wadhams Creek was 
operated during the 50's by E. C. Wadhams and after- 
wards came into the possession of the L. & W. B. Coal 
Co., and until recent years was operated through other 
channels by the Parrish Coal Co., of which Mr. Charles 
Parrish was the founder and first president. The Dodson 
mine, so called from the men who sank the shaft located 



6o Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

on Elm Hill, was owned mostly by John J. Shonk. It has 
been in operation under different managements for a 
number of years and is now in the control of Mr. J. C. 
Haddock under the title of the Plymouth Coal Co. The 
Gaylord mine has been under several different manage- 
ments. During the 6o's a Mr. Langdon of Elmira — the 
father-in-law of Mark Twain — was in control, I think, 
under the name of the Northern Coal and Iron Co. 

The preceding reference to Mr. Jamison Harvey, 
whose residence was located up on the hill just beyond 
the Grand Tunnel, recalls an incident of historic interest 
which occurred there not a very great while before the 
time of the Choke Island incident just related, and will 
be of interest in this connection. It concerns the capture 
there by a U. S. Marshal of a colored man in his em- 
ployment who was claimed as being a fugitive slave. That 
act was committed under the authority of an act of Con- 
gress which was passed in 1850 and known as the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law, one of the most infamous laws that was 
ever enacted. The law provided for the surrender to 
any claimant thereof, of any person they might choose to 
declare was a runaway slave, and all that was necessary 
to do under that law to prove ownership of the person so 
claimed was to make an affidavit before any commissioner 
appointed to take depositions, that the person so claimed 
was a slave who had escaped from his master, and upon 
the proper certificate from that official, without any fur- 
ther ceremony the accused persons were hurried off into 
slavery. Such persons being property, they were not per- 
mitted to testify, nor were they granted a hearing before 
a judge or jury. One of the obnoxious features of the 
law which was really in the nature of a bribe to the com- 
missioners, was his fee of $10 in case he directed a sur- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 6i 

render of the person of the accused, otherwise it was 
only half that amount. 

In this case Mr. Harvey was, I believe, subjected to 
a fine for the efforts he exerted to save his man; whereas, 
under the benign provisions of the law he was in duty 
bound to aid in securing his arrest. 

Another similar incident occurred at about the same 
time at the old Phoenix Hotel in Wilkes-Barre, which 
was located on the site of the present L. & W. B. Coal 
Company's office building on River Street. A mulatto 
waiter there was chased into the river by some slave 
hunters and fired upon with revolvers and badly wounded. 
He made his escape, however, and was later found hid- 
den in the weeds along the shore and cared for. His 
would-be captors having announced that "a dead nigger" 
would be of no use to them. The brutal enforcement of 
that iniquitous law was one of the primary causes which 
led up to the war of the rebellion, and yet there are 
people who place the responsibility for that war upon the 
Abolitionists. 

Soon after the time of these occurrences there came 
from the press that historic novel of Harriet Beecher 
Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It created a most pro- 
found sensation at the time and the story is familiar to 
nearly everybody throughout the North to-day. I have 
in my possession a copy of one of the first of the many 
thousand editions of that famous novel, which I loved 
to hear my grandfather read as we all sat around his 
fireside on winter evenings. 



Chapter IX. 

Reverie — Wild Pigeons — Swimming — Rafting — ^A Disappointing 
Experience — Traveling Inconveniences — Flood of 1852 and 
the Resulting Hardships — Flood of 1865 — Incidents of the 
Flood — Early Military Organizations — The ShaM^nee Rang- 
ers — General Trainings — Martial Music — Black Jack — Later 
Military Companies — Top Heaviness of the Military Estab- 
lishment. 

THE sensations of a drowning person, it is said by 
those who have been resuscitated after having 
nearly undergone that fate, are that the events and scenes 
of their whole lives — like a panorama — are flashed be- 
fore their mind's eye in a moment, and the forgotten 
memories and most trifling incidents of the past are 
vividly brought into view. 

It is a sensation something like that which I experi- 
ence as I attempt to locate the almost obliterated land- 
marks of near a century ago; as the obscure evidence of 
their former existence brings them into view, old scenes 
and long- forgotten incidents connected therewith are 
vividly recalled and flash through the mind with light- 
ning rapidity, and in the effort to describe them I am at 
a loss how or where to begin. For instance, here stands 
an old tree that appears about the same as I remember 
it when a boy. It must be over a hundred years old; 
what precious memories it recalls. 

"Kind friends are gone but the old tree stands, 
Unharmed by the warring blasts." 

Over there by the roadside stands the relics of an- 
other old veteran of the forest, from whose decaying 
branches I fired at a red squirrel with an old horse pistol 
from which part of the stock blew off with the explosion, 
and I have wondered whether the squirrel or I was the 
worse scared. On yonder ledge I have sat, and watched 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 63 

with admiration — where now are only to be seen un- 
sightly piles of culm — the shadows of the clouds as they 
passed over the waving fields of grain and meadow on 
the Shawnee Flats, presenting a scene of beauty far sur- 
passing the painter's art, and, in imagination, I can see 
the crows as they came, flying singly, or in pairs or flocks 
to their far away mountain homes. In yonder field, now 
covered with dwelling houses, is where we used to coast 
on the crusted snow on moonlight nights, on sleds made 
up of barrel staves which flew almost with the speed of 
the wind. On the brow of yonder hill I have stood with 
gun in hand, patiently waiting and hoping for a chance 
to shoot at the wild pigeons as they passed over, in 
flocks so dense as almost to obscure the light of the sun, 
but so high up that a Krag Jorgenson rifle could be 
scarcely able to reach them ; and there, way down in that 
field yonder near the river, where I was sent to work, 
some idle boys would pass and holding up two fingers — 
an inviting sign to go swimming — was sufl^icient induce- 
ment to while the happy hours away in the comfortable 
waters at the mouth of Wadham's Creek, while my in- 
dulgent father — until, in the interest of my health Fuller 
Reynolds advised him otherwise — was fondly indulging 
the ridiculous belief that I was industriously hoeing corn. 

Thus do "fond memories bring the light of other days 
around me," and the happy days of boyhood are again 
lived over; but, like a tale that is told, naught remains 
but memories which will doubtless be of little interest 
here, and as garrulousness is said to be a characteristic 
of old people, that must be my excuse for the telling, if 
one is needed. 

In the days of early spring for many years it was a 
common sight to see the river filled with rafts of lumber, 
and arks loaded with potatoes, or other articles of pro- 



64 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

duce coming from the headwaters of the river in New 
York State, pass by on the annual spring freshet. For 
days at a time these would pass almost continuously by 
hundreds. They would go through the chute by the side 
of the Nanticoke Dam and proceed on down to various 
points along the river from whence their crews — as 
often did canal boatmen — would return on foot to their 
homes. 

I had long had a very ardent desire to have a ride on 
one of those lumber rafts, with their cosy looking little 
cabins in the centre, so one day I procured a skiff, and 
with a great deal of laborious effort rowed up stream 
about a mile, when I struck out to intercept one in the 
middle of the river, fondly expecting to enjoy a long and 
very pleasant ride, but alas! my painful exertions had 
strangely enough caused me to overlook the wonderful 
rapidity of the current, and as soon as I reached the cov- 
eted goal I looked around and to my amazement saw that 
I was far below my starting point. Without delay I 
pulled for shore and reached home with my hands badly 
blistered and a sadder and much wiser boy, and with the 
desire for rafting entirely gone. 

There being no railroad conveniences, or other con- 
venient and expeditious means of travel in those days, 
pedestrian methods were quite commonly resorted to, and 
I have myself seen men with carpet bag in hand traveling 
to Bloomsburg and Danville in the prosecution of their 
business pursuits, and — I am almost afraid to tell it — 
sixty miles a day was not considered an extraordinary 
or unusual distance for a day's journey on foot. 

These annual freshets, while they were usually antici- 
pated or expected, were often the cause of considerable 
trouble and expense in the destruction of fences, and in 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 65 

the removal of driftwood and other debris after the 
waters had subsided. 

In the year 1852 I think it was, there came a rather 
unusual and unexpected flood in July, which caused much 
loss and damage and subsequent distress. Considerable 
of the grain on the flats had been cut and stood in shocks 
in the fields. The farmers worked at night with their 
teams in efforts to save their crops, but the river rose so 
rapidly that very little in that direction could be accom- 
plished, and what was saved was covered with mud and 
for a year afterwards gritty wheat flour was much in evi- 
dence, the only alternative being bread made from rye 
which was mostly grown on the uplands, or Johnny cakes, 
conditions, which to the fastidious palates of to-day would 
doubtless seem more appalling than the horrors of the 
present European war. The poor cattle and horses were 
probably the worst sufferers, for neither hay or grain 
could be handled without raising a smothering cloud of 
dust; but in the case of both man and beast, it was simply 
a question of eat or starve. 

The most appalling flood, however, occurred on St. 
Patrick's Day, March 17th and i8th, 1865. The weather 
was clear and pleasant and the ice had all passed out of 
the river, and people were congratulating themselves that 
all danger from floods had passed. However, there had 
sprung up a warm south wind which melted the heavy 
snows on the mountains and along the headwater sheds 
of the river and brought the waters down with a rush. 
On the 17th there was a township election being held in 
the upper schoolroom of the Academy and in the after- 
noon the tardy voters from the upper end were obliged 
to make use of the fence between Mr. Gaylord's resi- 
dence and the Wadhams' residence in order to reach the 
polling place. Late in the afternoon I rowed a boat up 



66 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

to the door of the schoolroom and took the election board 
to dry land. The water rose to cover the tops of the 
counters in Wadhams' store. Manny Wharram had 
hastily built some boats for service on the occasion, and 
on the 1 8th I rowed one of these into the front door en- 
trance of Mr, Wadhams' residence and took on board 
his family, they stepping into the boat from the second 
or third step from the bottom of the hall stairway. The 
wind was blowing almost a gale and the boat was un- 
wieldy. We sailed over the top of the garden fence. I 
lost my cap in the perilous voyage but managed to land 
the cargo safely at the foot of the hill somewhere near 
the upper end of Gaylord Avenue. Later I removed 
the family of Rev. J. G. Eckman from the old Methodist 
parsonage to a place of safety. In passing one of their 
children to me in the boat, before I could get a secure 
hold the boat gave a lurch and the kid dropped into the 
water. That same kid is now, I believe, or was, the 
pastor of one of the largest churches in New York City. 
If perchance he should ever read these lines I wonder if 
he can remember the incident of his immersion. 

While there was much damage and suffering caused 
by this flood to many of the people of Plymouth, yet there 
were also many comical and laughable incidents connected 
with it. Nearly everybody appeared to take the situation 
philosophically and in good nature, and in fact, many 
seemed rather to enjoy the unusual novelty and excite- 
ment incident thereto. In the upper end of town it 
seemed as though nearly all of the outhouses of the neigh- 
borhood had a penchant for eddying in or near the main 
street, and that ever jovial and irrepressible Tom Dod- 
son, having marooned a keg of liquor, he established a 
free bar in one of them, and it was said that nearly every- 
body in the neighborhood got drunk. 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 67 

The earliest, and in fact the only remembrance I have 
of any military organizations in Plymouth, and that is 
very indistinct, is that of the "Shawnee Greens," although 
there was some kind of a military system in vogue in the 
State in early days whereby the military subjects were 
required to arm and equip themselves. I remember of 
hearing my father speak of being required, In obedi- 
ence to orders of the Brigade Inspector, to report some- 
where for muster, when the men would appear armed 
with sticks or cornstalks for guns. Where or when these 
inspections were held I am not aware, nor do I recollect 
having ever seen any military drills or parades in Ply- 
mouth. 

The "Shawnee Greens," so named from the color of 
the gorgeous uniforms they wore, was organized by 
Francis J. Smith probably about the year 1842 or 1843. 
The officers were Francis J. Smith, captain, and Fuller 
Reynolds and Draper Smith, lieutenants. Their green 
uniforms consisted of frock-tailed coats with a profusion 
of round brass bell buttons, tasseled epaulettes and hel- 
mets with gorgeous plumes which might have excited the 
envy of Henry of Navarre. 

I don't think this formidable arm of national defense 
was very large, or that it survived very long, for I re- 
member when about seven or eight years of age, while 
living in Kingston, where Captain Smith also at that time 
lived in the old stone house on the corner, that we boys 
got access to a room where the uniforms were stored, 
and helped ourselves to brass buttons and gilt trimmings. 

I have often heard of general training days which 
I think occurred in the spring months, and an important 
feature of which was ginger cakes and cider. I think 
these military displays generally took place either at 
Kingston or Wilkes-Barre. The only ones which I can 



68 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

recall were at Kingston when uniformed troops from 
Wilkes-Barre paraded and I think they wore white 
trousers which were held down with leather straps under 
the boots. These all made an appearance which to the 
juvenile mind particularly was very formidable and awe- 
inspiring. 

On these, as on all similar occasions, perhaps the 
most attractive feature of the display was the music. For 
martial music I don't believe there ever was or probably 
can be, when properly executed, anything more inspiring 
or calculated to arouse the highest pitch of patriotic 
ardor, than the fife and drums. In this particular on all 
military or civic occasions, "Shawnee against the world," 
Plymouth was without a peer. There was Henderson 
Egbertson, with his tenor drum; his brother Jim, famil- 
iarly known as "Bucksy," with the bass drum, and Black 
Jack, with the fife, and whenever they paraded, as they 
sometimes did through the main street of an evening, 
they always attracted an audience. 

Black Jack was one of the conspicuous characters of 
Plymouth. It was said of him that he could play the fife 
on a march from Plymouth to Wilkes-Barre without 
cessation. He used to work for my grandfather and on 
one occasion I had it all planned to accompany him on 
a sled load of grain to Wilkes-Barre. At the opportune 
moment, however, my grandmother despatched me on 
some brief errand and when I got back Jack was gone. 
I felt very much aggrieved over the shabby trick that had 
been played upon me, but it was doubtless fortunate, for 
when Jack came home his condition was not such as 
would have made his company very desirable. One 
morning early he came to our house and told my mother 
that he was going away, and gave her his fife for me to 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 69 

keep until his return, and I have poor Jack's fife in my 
possession yet. 

All of the colored people in Plymouth that I ever 
knew had the prefix "black" attached to their given 
names. Black John and Black Anthony I have already 
referred to, and there was a servant of Mrs. Chauncey 
Reynolds who was known as Black Ann. I never heard 
mentioned any surnames of these persons if they had any. 

Concerning later military organizations here, about 
the time of the close of the war, or shortly after the 
military spirit, particularly among the younger generation 
began to manifest itself and many military organizations 
sprang up throughout the State. Plymouth at one time 
boasted of three infantry companies captained respec- 
tively by A. F. Levi, Wm. W. Woodword and Martin 
Carey. The militia laws of the State, however, being so 
crude and unsatisfactory, and no adequate or material 
financial support being provided, these organizations did 
not long survive. One, and perhaps the most formidable 
feature of the military arm of the State government at 
that time was the multitudinous array of officers con- 
nected with it. At one time it is said that there were in 
command of some three hundred military companies in 
the State, no less than twenty-one major generals, with 
perhaps near that number of brigadier generals, each 
with a large retinue of colonels and majors as staff offi- 
cers, which in the aggregate nearly equalled the number 
of privates. 

About 1879 the military establishment was thor- 
oughly reorganized, resulting in its present superior state 
of efficiency. 



Chapter X. 

Early Methods of Traveling — ^Weaver's Stage Line — Steamboats 
— The Little Jim — ^Transferring Canal Boats — Shows and 
Circuses — Burial Grounds and Cemeteries — Early Medical 
Methods — Doctors — Bogus Diplomas. 

IV/j' ENTION has heretofore been made of the early 
methods or means of traveling from place to 
place. There being no public means of traveling, the 
people as a rule having employment enough at home to 
engage their time and attention, unless called away on 
business or allured by some unusual attraction in Wilkes- 
Barre, generally remained at home, and those who were 
thus called away, if not possessed of horses and convey- 
ances, took the only safe and independent course, of going 
on foot. The city of Scranton was then unborn and Pitts- 
ton, with little or no inducements to offer, was nearly as 
far distant as is Philadelphia to-day, so that about the 
only easy accessible points of attraction were Kingston 
and the Borough of Wilkes-Barre. The route there was 
through the Narrows and over Ross Hill. Many of 
those with teams would tie their horses to the fence, or 
to the trees in the grove near the entrance to the bridge 
and walk across to save bridge toll which was an item of 
expense worthy of consideration in those days. 

On the lower side of the road, near the entrance to 
the old covered bridge, in an old framehouse, a man 
named Gunton did quite a thriving business selling 
melons and oysters in season, the latter in small kegs of 
one or two quarts size. The first attempt towards estab- 
lishing a means of public conveyance was sometime in 
the early 50's when Charley Weaver established a stage 
line from Plymouth to Wilkes-Barre. His two-horse 
coach would start from Lance's barn at the lower end of 
town and make two round trips daily. The fare for the 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 71 

round trip was fifty cents. The patronage, however, was 
not sufficient to insure success and the project was soon 
abandoned. 

After the L. & B. Railroad got in operation the fare 
to Kingston was fifteen cents, and across the flats to 
Wilkes-Barre, on the horse cars, ten cents. Several un- 
successful attempts had been made at different times to 
navigate the river from Tunkhannock to Wilkes-Barre, 
but only during high water stages could a boat get 
through. I think a Captain Converse was one of the 
pioneers in those attempts. When Hendrick B. Wright 
was in Congress he obtained an appropriation to dredge 
the channel at Fish Island near Wilkes-Barre, sufficient 
to permit a boat to pass through. The river from that 
point to Nanticoke being navigable at low water, and he 
with others formed a company and put on a stern-wheel 
steamboat bearing his name to ply between Wilkes-Barre 
and Nanticoke. The boat made four daily trips between 
the two points and proved to be much of a convenience to 
the traveling public. This enterprise proving so success- 
ful, Fremont Jenkins put on a small boat named the 
"Magnolia," and afterwards added the "Plymouth," 
both side-wheelers, and Theodore Renshaw put on the 
"Mayflower," and afterwards the larger "Lyman Tru- 
man," and Joel Walp had a stern-wheeler, the "Wilkes- 
Barre.." 

The intense rivalry between these steamship lines in 
connection with the railroad soon made the business un- 
profitable; and with the gradual filling up of the river 
channel with culm and the low water, caused by the dis- 
use of the Nanticoke dam, made navigation impossible. 

The Hendrick B. Wright was wrecked by the ice, as 
was also the Wilkes-Barre ; the Truman blew up and the 
Mayflower was taken over to Harvey's lake. 



72 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

Aside from a small pleasure yacht, the "Wingohock- 
ing," brought here from Philadelphia by James Martin, 
the first regular steamboat service on the river here was 
a tug boat called the "Little Jim," rechristened the "Wil- 
liam Patten," and brought here by that gentleman for the 
purpose of towing canal boats to and from his coal chutes 
to the canal entrance at Nanticoke. I believe that George 
P. Richards was the first engineer on that boat. 

Before the advent of that tug, the custom had been 
for boats with their teams to cross the river by means 
of a rope ferry below Harvey's wharf, and then to tow 
them, up the "Pool" to near the Outlet lock above Butz- 
bach's, from which point they would be "poled" to and 
from their respective wharves. 

Boats destined to points further up the canal, before 
approaching this Outlet lock would through their boat 
horns sound notice of their approach, in time for the 
"tender" to prepare the lock for their entrance into the 
canal. Occasionally some expert bugler would perform 
that duty and often on a calm summer evening their 
pleasing melodies could be distinctly heard in town. 

Besides the annual elections, the events of most ab- 
sorbing interest, particularly to the rising generation, 
was the periodical visits of Van Amburg's Menagerie, 
and Dan Rice's and Forepaugh's Circuses to Wilkes- 
Barre. The former was the only one of these exhibitions 
I was ever permitted to attend. The circuses, aside from 
the financial aspects of the case, were considered entirely 
unnecessary and of a demoralizing nature, and in conse- 
quence my only recourse was to view with wistful gaze 
the gorgeous pictures of the forty-horse chariots and the 
wonderful acrobatic feats as displayed on the side of a 
barn. 

On all such occasions it was most aggravating to see 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 73 

the long processions of male and female, adult and juve- 
nile pedestrians wending their way to Wilkes-Barre in 
the early morning, equipped with their day's provisions 
and prepared to spend the day in undisturbed enjoyment 
of these to me forbidden pleasures. 

There was, however, one consoling feature which 
tended somewhat to mitigate the pangs of disappoint- 
ment; "Milly" would always call us up before daylight 
in time to see the elephants and camels and ponies and 
wagons with their sleepy attendants pass by on their way 
to Berwick. I was about sixteen years of age before I 
ever attended a circus and then I ran away from school 
at Wyoming and walked over to Pittston at night to see it. 

Passing now from the gay and frivolous, to the more 
serious and grave concerns, I have already described the 
private burying ground of the Hodge family in the 
French orchard. I have heard intimated that there was 
in very early days another graveyard somewhere in the 
vicinity of the flat road near the "swing gate," but of this 
I have no definite knowledge, nor is there any evidence 
of one having been there. The one on the corner of 
Shawnee Avenue and Reynolds Street, known as the 
Reynolds graveyard, was established in 1828. In the 
records in Luzerne County Courthouse is filed a lease 
from John Turner and Benjamin Reynolds, to Calvin 
Wadhams, Joseph Wright, Jamison Harvey, Noah Wad- 
hams, Freeman Thomas, Samuel Wadhams, George S. 
Clark, Henry Gabriel, Joshua Pugh, and said Turner in 
common with the others, for land for 900 years, "for the 
purpose of a private burying ground." This lease is 
dated November 20, 1828, was acknowledged May 14, 
1845, and recorded August 6, 1851, and on November 
20, 1828, Benjamin Reynolds and John Turner acknowl- 
edges receipt from the lessees of $10, "in full in advance 



74 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

for all rents for term of 900 years." Most all of the 
bodies have been removed from this burying ground to 
other places; but few remaining, of old residents, their 
graves uncared for and perhaps long ago forgotten, and 
the ground is overgrown with weeds and briars, and 
made a depository for tin cans and other rubbish by the 
unsympathetic occupants of the adjoining, lots. There is 
another private burying ground on "Turkey Hill," known 
as the Davenport burying ground which has I believe — 
since the establishment of the Shawnee Cemetery further 
up the hill — been abandoned as a burying ground. 

Until within recent years many interments of Ply- 
mouth residents were made in the cemeteries at Forty- 
Fort or Wilkes-Barre. The HoUenback Cemtery at 
Wilkes-Barre was opened in 1856 and my sister Cornelia 
was the second person to be buried there in June of that 
year. 

Perhaps the earliest public burying ground in Ply- 
mouth is the old Shupp graveyard near the L. & B. junc- 
tion. I have no knowledge of when or by whom this 
graveyard was established. It formerly comprised sev- 
eral acres of ground but all the larger part of this has 
been covered over by the D. & H. Co. with huge piles 
of refuse from their adjacent mines, and only a garden 
patch in size remains, in a very dilapidated state, but is 
still being used by the public, where interments are yet 
being made three and four deep. 

Perhaps at no distant day the general public will be- 
come sufficiently enlightened to substitute the more 
humane and sanitary method of cremation for the repul- 
sive and revolting one of sepulture; and why, from an 
economic point of view, should the dead be permitted to 
encumber the ground and be in the way of the living? 

From graveyards to doctors, or vice versa, is a very 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 75 

easy and seemingly logical transition of topics of discus- 
sion; while we all have faults, and are prone to mistakes, 
— the easiest of all human accomplishments, — unfortu- 
nately perhaps we can't always hide, or bury them in 
everlasting oblivion. In the early days when doctors 
were few and far between, and not easily accessible, the 
mothers, or some neighborly old grandmothers were the 
family physicians; and not until the patient got beyond 
their skill was the doctor summoned, when, after inspect- 
ing the tongue and examining the pulse, he would look 
wise, and if he didn't resort to blood letting would al- 
most invariably prescribe the proverbial dose of Rhubarb, 
or Calomel and Castor Oil; all very excellent remedies, 
and well calculated to arouse a very decisive, if not en- 
thusiastic hygienic interest; but the vilest prescription I 
think, and one on which I always drew the line, was, sul- 
phur mixed in molasses; that dose is the climax of nasti- 
ness. The prevalent diseases or ailments of today, were 
diagnosed under different names, for example, diphtheria 
was probably an aggravated sore throat, pneumonia, in- 
flammation of the lungs, and appendicitis, either inflam- 
mation of the bowels or dry belly ache. 

In nearly every house might be seen hanging from the 
rafters in the attic, or strung along the beams, a well ar- 
ranged assortment of catnip, sweet fern, sage and various 
other "yarbs" possessing sedative, laxative and purga- 
tive, or other medicinal virtues, while a bag of roots of 
varied species was usually near at hand, or in case of 
emergency some old Nimrod of Knowledge and experi- 
ence would be despatched to the woods or fields in search 
of squaw roots, golden-thread, burdock or other roots 
necessary to the requirements of the domestic pharmacy, 
and the compounding or manufacture of all which into 
teas, salves or poultices was by no means an occult art. 



76 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

I have often heard mention made of a Doctor Mont- 
ross of early days, who lived somewhere back of the 
mountain who was regarded somewhat as a medical pro- 
digy, but my earliest recollection of the fraternity was a 
Doctor Boyd of Wilkes-Barre, who perhaps, at that 
period was more instrumental in increasing the census 
statistics of the town than any one other. Then there 
was a doctor John Smith also of Wilkes-Barre, an early 
practitioner here who always sat cross legged in his lumb- 
ering top buggy which was drawn by a horse with a 
maximum speed of about one mile in seventy-five minutes, 
but who always brought sunshine and hope in his visits. 
Doctor Ebenezer Chamberlin was one of, if not the old- 
est early resident physicians. He was a very genial and 
kind hearted man, known to almost everybody from his 
pointed and witty sayings, and characteristics. He lived 
here for many years and had a large practice. He also 
served as Justice of the Peace for a number of years. 
Doctor J. E. Bulkley and Doctor Brisbane both of 
Wilkes-Barre were frequent visitors. In later years there 
were as resident physicians Doctors Bixby, Rickard, M. 
G. Whitney, Wilson, and McKee, — father and son, — all 
of whom were respected physicians and each enjoying a 
large practice. 

In the late 70's quite a commotion was stirred up 
amongst the medical fraternity throughout the State, by 
a report to the authorities from our Minister in Ger- 
many, the Hon. Andrew D. White, to the effect that a 
man named Buchanan in Philadelphia was engaged in 
the business of selling doctors' diplomas purporting to 
issue from an institution called the "Philadelphia Uni- 
versity," which being confounded there with the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, an institution of learning, of 
world wide reputation, was heaping discredit upon that 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 77 

institution. An investigation resulted and legal meas- 
ures adopted which had the effect of unearthing many 
of those bogus certificates throughout the country, much 
to the chagrin and discomfiture of the possessors thereof. 



Chapter XL 

Early Methods of Weighing — System of Barter — Reason for 
Peculiarity of Prices of Comnnodities — 'Currency Conditions 
— Spanish Coins — Fips and Shillings — Counterfeit Notes — 
Era of Shinplasters — Customs of Early Merchants — Means 
of Travel — Wholesale Merchants — ^Arrival of Goods — 
Pedlars and Their Wares. 

T N early days most commodities sold by weight, were 
-■- weighed on steelyards. For small articles or quanti- 
ties these were weighed by holding the steelyard with the 
article to be weighed suspended thereto, with one hand, 
and with the other, adjusting the balance upon the ex- 
tended steelyard arm which indicated the weight; hence, 
in the records of sales or purchases made, it is not un- 
usual to find such seemingly, to us, odd quantities named 
as for example 6% pounds of coffee or 1054 pounds of 
sugar. It used to be said of one very early merchant 
that in his dealings with the Indians, his hand weighed 
one pound and his foot two pounds. 

Purchases were very commonly made by means of 
barter, or exchange of commodities, — ready money was 
in many cases, an almost unknown quantity. The farm- 
ers banking capital and facilities was his grain, hay, pota- 
toes and other articles of produce, with occasionally 
some portions of a dressed hog, or a quarter or side of 
beef or veal, most of which articles were always very 
acceptable in payment to the doctor, the shoemaker or the 
blacksmith, while the housewife sold butter and eggs or 



yS Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

home knit woolen mittens and stocking, and then, as most 
every household had its own seamstress, the concomitant 
and convenient rag bag, with "paper rags" worth three 
cents a pound at any of the stores, was a small but valu- 
able aid in the procuring of thread and other such neces- 
sary items. 

Another one of the peculiar early customs unknown 
or unpracticed at the present time, although a popular 
one as late as the time of the war of the rebellion, was 
the making the prices to be charged for many articles, 
or commodities, 6^ cents, or 12^ cents, a pound or a 
yard. The reason for such common use of the fraction 
in connection with the sale price of articles, was doubt- 
less owing to the condition and value of the currency then 
in general circulation, which consisted almost entirely of 
Spanish silver coins and State bank notes; a standard of 
value being, generally, a "Spanish Milled Dollar." 

Hon. John Sherman, former Secretary of the U. S. 
Treasury, in his memoirs says, that "in 1793 foreign 
coins were a legal tender for circulation in this country. 
Spanish coins found great favor — Spanish dollars though 
three grains heavier than ours, were readily exchanged 
in Mexico and the West Indies for our bright new coins. 
This led to an exchange of our dollars for the Spanish 
ones which were promptly received at our mint at a 
profit. This put upon the government the expense of 
making coins with no advantage. This was free coinage. 
In 1806 President Jefferson prohibited the coinage of 
silver dollars and when S. P. Chase became Secretary of 
the Treasury in 1861, there were probably not 1,000 
silver dollars in the United States." 

"By the Acts of Congress of 1834 and 1837, the 
ratio of coinage was made 16 to i, with the result that 
gold coins were largely introduced and circulated, but as 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 79 

16 ounces of silver was worth more than one ounce of 
gold, the silver coins disappeared except the depreciated 
foreign coins, then a legal tender." 

Those Spanish coins were nearly all worn so thin and 
smooth through circulation as to be almost undecipher- 
able in appearance, but if there remained resemblance of 
any of the original earmarks of coinage on them they 
would pass at full value without question. The smallest 
of those coins was counted as 6^ cents in exchange, 
and the next size 125^ cents and they were called 
respectively six pence or "fipenny bits," — for short 
"fips," — and shillings, or "eleven penny bits." A bit be- 
ing 12^ cents which term was probably of Southern 
origin where it was commonly made use of. Most all of 
the bank notes were counterfeited, and nearly every mer- 
chant had one of Thompson's Monthly Bank Note detec- 
tors, which gave a minute description of every known 
counterfeit bill, and which he would always consult upon 
presentation to him of any unfamiliar note. 

At the commencement of the war, even this debased 
silver currency entirely disappeared and the merchants 
and business men were put to great straights, before the 
issue of fractional currency by the government, to make 
change for bank notes in their business dealings. This 
inconvenience they overcame however, by many of them 
issuing their own scrip, or "Shinplasters," in denomina- 
tions of five cents and its multiple up to 50 cents; of 
course, the only basis of value to this scrip was the repu- 
tation of the party issuing it. Even brass and copper 
tokens of all manner of devices and purporting to rep- 
resent cents were put in circulation which were really of 
not as much value as a button, but almost anything was 
accepted in change without a murmur. After the issue of 
"greenbacks" by the government, it was nothing unusual 



8o Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

when making change of fifty cents, to cut a one dollar 
note in half. 

Every spring and fall, before canal navigation closed, 
it was the custom of the merchants of the town and val- 
ley, to go to Philadelphia to replenish their stocks of 
goods. Their route of travel would be by stage from 
Wilkes-Barre to Tamaqua ; leaving the old Phoenix Hotel 
long before daylight, they would take breakfast at Drums 
on the mountain and arrive about noon at Tamaqua, and 
from there take the train to Philadelphia. In later years 
a packet boat would connect at Catawissa with the Read- 
ing railroad. They usually traveled together and would 
put up in the city at the Black Bear Hotel on Third 
Street, the White Swan on Arch Street, or the Merchants, 
on Fourth Street, the principal hotels, and would make 
their purchases of the same firms. 

The names of those wholesale merchants are yet very 
familiar. There was James Kent Santee & Co., and 
Ludwig, Kneedler & Co., dry goods, and Eckel & Reigel, 
C. C. Sadler provisions, G. S. Gilbert drugs, Joel J. 
Bailey notions, James Shields & Co., hardware, Godfrey 
Keepler, a jolly Dutchman, whom I later knew very well, 
Frishmuth & Co., who sold the white papers of smoking 
tobacco with the Indian and his pipe for a label, and 
Mason, whose shoe polish bore the familiar label of a 
colored boy shining a boot which reflected an angry 
rooster. 

Their purchases were loaded on canal boats at Peter 
Wright's Son's wharf, and their arrival at Plymouth a 
week or ten days perhaps later, was always an event of 
very general interest, more especially to the women of the 
neighborhood, most of whom usually had given some 
special commission to the storekeeper to execute. Sup- 
plementing as it were these Philadelphia excursions, the 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 8i 

merchants had frequent opportunities of replenishing 
their stocks of small wares, particularly of candies, no- 
tions, and medicines, from traveling peddlar wagons 
which habitually passed through town. The medicine men 
usually drove gaily caparisoned horses hitched to gaudy 
wagons and distributed almanacs and descriptive circulars 
advertising remedies warranted to cure all ailments, or 
selling the well known Ayers Cherry Pectoral, Hines Tar 
Syrup, Swaynes Ointment, Indian Vegetable Pills, or 
galvanic ointment. 

The first introduction here of kerosene oil, was by 
one of those wagons, in the form of crude oil put up in 
small phials and labeled Petroleum or Rock Oil, a sure 
cure for rheumatism. 



Chapter XII. 

The Past and the Present, Comparisons — The "Appy Og" — 
Mythical Superior Traits of Honesty — Early Habits and 
Characteristics of People — Social Courtesies — Sociability 
Among Neighbors — Quilting Parties — Visiting — Apple Cuts 
and Candy Pulls — Deferences to Old People — Incidents — 
The 400 Society — Town Newspapers — Names of Business 
Men and Firms. 

IN apparent contravention of the old proverb that the 
world grows weaker and wiser, in comparisons made 
between the present and the past, one often hears lamen- 
tations by old people like those made by the Jews in 
olden times, of the departed glory of the "good old days" 
of yore, when everybody was honest and happy. 

There is not much doubt I think, that a greater and 
more genuine spirit of sociability prevailed among our 
forebears and predecessors, than exists in communities 
today. Evidence of this may still be seen in most every 



82 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

isolated country village or community which is cut off 
from railroad and other civilizing modern conveniences 
and luxuries. A natural human instinct there draws the 
people together, "to scorn delights and live laborious 
days;" their sympathies and their interests are mutual; 
what concerns one, is of more or less interest and concern 
to all the others; whereas, in populous centres, sur- 
rounded by all the wonderful means of speedy travel and 
communication with the outside world, the people are 
imbued with the progressive and wholly selfish spirit of 
the age which is, "every fellow for himself;" people 
come and people go unnoticed, and they don't really 
know their next door neighbors, and it is very question- 
able whether the people of today with all their luxurious 
surroundings are, in fact, as really happy and contented, 
and enjoy life as did those of a century ago in their 
homely simplicity, when their wants and desires were 
governed wholly by their resources, and they retired to 
bed and peaceful slumber in the happy assurance that 
they were "cocks upon their own dung hills." 

In this connection, these reflections remind me of the 
story told of a certain business man of foreign extraction, 
who eliminated the h's in his conversations; in returning 
to his home one night somewhat obfusticated, in passing 
a pen in which lay a sleeping hog, on viewing which he 
thus soliloquized: "Appy, og, appy og, no notes to settle 
tomorrow, nothing to worry about." 

We often read, and hear, much laudation concerning 
the frugality, purity, and honesty of our early predeces- 
sors. My memory extends back nearly seventy years, and 
during many of those years I have associated with and 
been in close business contact with many kinds and con- 
ditions of the human species, and from my readings and 
personal experiences, I have arrived at the conclusion that 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 83 

the whole human family are, and always have been, in- 
fected with the same kind of cussedness from the days of 
Abraham and Moses down to the present day. Mr. 
George B. Wendling, in his recent lecture delivered in 
Wilkes-Barre, was correct when he said, "One of our 
delusions is, that farmers are more honest than other 
people,"' and when I hear of one of those ancient, honest 
pioneers, selling his unsuspecting neighbor "rotten clover 
hay," and remember of buying from a "dear friend," a 
barrel of rotten apples with a "strictly handpicked" cover- 
ing, or a crate of inferior berries nicely concealed under 
"choice" varieties, by a professional Christian, I am con- 
firmed in my belief, in at least that portion of the holy 
scripture attributed to the prophet Micah, that, "they 
hunt every man his brother with a net," and the really 
"good man is perished out of the earth." 

In corroboration of what has been said concerning 
the social habits and characteristics of the early inhabi- 
tants, little acts of courtesy among neighbors were of 
frequent occurrence, in marked contrast to present day 
methods. If a man had a building to erect, after the 
timbers were all framed and prepared, it was a common 
custom on a given day, for the neighbors to all turn out 
to the "raising;" and in the butchering season, it was 
customary to always remember the near neighbors with a 
dainty cut from the slaughtered animal. 

Frequently the women of the neighborhood would as- 
semble to participate in a quilting party, an event of so- 
cial importance. Social calls were quite a common prac- 
tice on the part of both men and women, and it was not 
unusual for the women folks, unannounced, to start out 
in the forenoon with their "knitten," and spend the day 
with a neighbor, when, after the usual interesting and 
edifying subject of their respective distressful sufferings 



84 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

from "rheumatiz," disordered "stomicks" or sore feet, 
had been thoroughly discussed and diagnosed, probably 
the abstruse theological doctrines of foreordination, 
transubstantiation, or infant baptism would be next in 
order and consume a considerable part of the time. 

In the long winter evenings, oftentimes when it would 
be necessary on a dark night, to grope the way along the 
fences by the aid of a perforated tin lantern of a one 
lightning bug power of reflection, to get out of the mud, 
very pleasant visits would be made between neighbors, 
when a basket full of luscious apples and a pitcher of 
cider or, perhaps a genuine, warm mince pie, would 
always be in evidence. 

For the younger generation, in the fall of the year 
"apple cuts" were a popular recreation. After the ap- 
ples had been peeled and cored, they were strung on long 
strings, and it was not unusual to see them thus hanging 
in graceful festoons to dry, from the floor beams in 
houses, and making elegant roosting places for flies. 

For the juveniles, molasses "candy pulls," with the 
accompanying games of "hunt the button," "choose the 
one that you love best," and similar diversions were 
much enjoyed by the blushing lads and lassies. 

A kind of reverent deference was paid to the elderly 
people, as manifested in the affectionate terms used in 
addressing, or referring to them. For example, there 
was Aunt Liva Davenport, Aunt Fanny Turner, and Aunt 
Phoebe Wadhams, kind hearted old ladies, respected by 
everybody; and among the men, Uncle Robert Daven- 
port, of whom it used to be said, that in a discussion in 
reference to winter thaws, he asserted there was always 
a thaw in January for he had seen hundreds of them. 
And there was Uncle "Benny" Reynolds, and Uncle. In- 
gersol Wadhams, a general favorite, and of whom it 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 85 

was said, that, being annoyed by persons coming across 
the river to steal turnips from his patch on the flats, he 
concealed himself in the weeds with a shotgun loaded 
with beans, and when one of the depredators stooped 
over to pull turnips, he fired at his anatomy with the re- 
sult that thereafter he was left in undisputed possession 
of his crop. 

In discussions among the women folks, in speaking of 
each other, it seems to have been a custom among them — 
perhaps from a similar custom of prefixing the word 
black, to the given names of colored persons, — to couple 
the first name of the wife, with the first name of her hus- 
band; for example, Mrs. Jacob Gould's name was Han- 
nah, for short called Hanner, as was also that of Mrs. 
John Davenport, Mrs. Robert Davenport's name was 
Phoebe, and Mrs. Thomas Pringle's name was Betsy. 
This select coterie, probably in fashionable New York 
City parlance might be called the 400 Society of, Ply- 
mouth. These names were rhymed together, thus : 

Hanner Jake and Hanner John, 
Phoebe Bob and Betsy Tom. 

Maybe, like Buttercups babies, I have got these genealo- 
gies mixed, but it don't affect the illustration. 

Plymouth, as a newspaper town, does not for some 
cause, appear to have been a success. The first attempt 
in publishing a newspaper here was made by Asher Gay- 
lord some time during the middle 50's. It was a small 
folio, I think called the Herald. It was printed on coarse 
paper that was manufactured at Berwick by Wm. L. 
Lance who was experimenting there in the manufacture 
of paper from wood pulp. This paper which was con- 
sidered merely a joke, only made two issues. 

The earliest newspaper to be established in Plymouth 
was "The Plymouth Star," published weekly by E. D. 



86 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

Barthe. It was established some time during the 6o's 
and grew into a large circulation which continued for a 
number of years. Ill health of the publisher and a fall- 
ing off of patronage finally caused its demise. 

In 1869 a weekly paper was published by N. B. 
Burtch, called the Plymouth Register, but it was not of 
long duration. That paper I think, had first been estab- 
lished as a temperance organ by a man named Gould. It 
was later continued under the name of "The Index," by 
French and Levi,— ^primarily as an advertising medium — 
and was still later, continued for several years as a 
weekly by Dr. H. D. Bixby and his brother, and was 
quite a lively little sheet. 

In 1 89 1, the Plymouth Tribune was published a 
short time by W. H. Capwell, who was succeeded for a 
few years, by J. S. Sanders — or possibly Sanders was suc- 
ceeded by Capwell. However, in 1896, J. W. Louis is- 
sued it for a short time as a daily, under the auspices of 
the Plymouth Board of Trade. In the issue of The 
Plymouth Star of Nov. i, 1871, appears the advertise- 
ments of the following named business men and firms in 
Plymouth which will be of interest; they were: Harvey 
Bros. & Kern, and D. E. Frantz, planing mill and lum- 
ber; C. A. Kuschke, merchant tailor; C. H. Wilson, H. 
D. Bixby, G. W. McKee, A. G. Rickard, physicians and 
surgeons; Prof.. H. Stadler, music teacher; E. Hair (suc- 
cessor to Samuel Snyder), and Barber and Jenkins, hard- 
ware; Dr. F. L. DeGour, dentist; Thos. Nesbitt, attor- 
ney; D. K. Spry, S. W. Frantz, drugs; E. C. Wadhams, 
Anthony Duffy, Wm. Davis & Co., John Albrighton & 
Co., J. Albrighton, Peter Shupp, dry goods and groceries; 
S. Weil, Freeman & Lees, Priester Schloss & Co., cloth- 
iers; J. Y. Wren, machinist and foundry; H. Hudson, 
David B. Williams, painters and decorators; E. W. Beck- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 87 

with, photographer; Thos. Dodson, carpenter; John 
Lees, James Eley, saloons and restaurants; Geo. P. 
Richards, liquors; M. M. Weir & Son, Frantz House, 
hotel; Frank Chelius, tobacco and cigars; N. Vanloon, 
Wm. Brown, John Hummel, Miner Nogle, livery stables; 
Dooley & Nealon, J. M. Williams, Joseph Switzer, cabi- 
netmakers and undertakers; Tuttle, Edgar and Har- 
rower, building materials and flour and feed; Brown & 
Mangan, Marx Weil, Harris & Morgan, Lewis Gorham, 
butchers; T. G. Jenkins, marble dealer; French & Levi, 
real estate and insurance; A. F. Levi, books; Carter & 
Co., fruits and vegetables; O. P. Gould, flour and feed; 
M. N. Madden, confectionery and canned goods; L. 
Boughtin, blacksmith and wheelwright, J. M. Connor, 
harness. 



Chapter XIII. 

The War of the Rebellion — Captain Gaylord — Copperheads — 
Fishing Creek Confederacy — Skulkers — Funeral of First Vic- 
tim — Rev. Thomas P. Hunt — An Incident — Bounty Bonds 
— Railroad Riots of 1877 — Acts of Lawlessness — Arrival of 
Troops — The Molly Maguires — Killing of Dunleavy. 

ON April 12, 1 86 1, with the firing on Fort Sumpter 
at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, began the 
War of the Rebellion which was destined for five long 
dreary years, to spread death, destruction and misery 
over all the land. In that war, Plymouth furnished her 
full quota of men in support of the Union, some of whom 
are now sleeping in unmarked graves or among the "un- 
known" in the South; among that number being Captain 
Asher Gaylord, of whom mention has been already made. 
In this connection, a short time prior to his last bat- 
tle, Capt. Gaylord who was at home recuperating from 



88 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

wounds he had received, paid me three dollars for a 
sword I had, and which he doubtless carried at the titne 
of his death. 

While Plymouth had many loyal sons during that 
war, she also, like many other communities, had within 
her boundaries a few "Copperheads;" so named from the 
venomous characteristics of that reptile which, lying con- 
cealed in the grass was ever ready at an opportune mo- 
ment to inject its deadly venom. A colony of those cop- 
perheads near the close of the war, formed an encamp- 
ment back of Bloomsburg in Columbia County, known as 
the Fishing Creek Confederacy, and were organized and 
armed, for the purpose of resisting the draft. It became 
necessary for the government to send U. S. troops there 
to disperse them. 

During that period, some few — now-would-be 
patriots, — found the climate of Canada, or of distant 
states, more congenial to their health, and a few in Ply- 
mouth were arrested for acts of disloyalty. 

Among the first victims from Plymouth of that war, 
was George Chamberlin, a son of the old doctor, who 
died in camp and his body was brought home for burial. 
The funeral was held on Sunday afternoon in the Metho- 
dist Church which was crowded to overflowing. Rev. 
Thos. P. Hunt, a Presbyterian minister from Wyoming, 
who was chaplain of the same regiment officiated at the 
.services. Rev. Hunt was a small hunchback man who, 
by force of character had earned a wide reputation. His 
eye was penetrating, and his tongue, which he was utterly 
fearless in using, was sharper than a two-edged sword. 

On this particular occasion, his discourse was more 
patriotic than theologic and it gave so great offense to 
one old gentleman present, that he arose in his seat and 
protested against what he called a prostitution of the 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 89 

pulpit. As he started down the aisle to leave the church, 
the old doctor and chief mourner, who was intensely 
loyal, shouted out, "Give the old rebel hell." The ser- 
vices were concluded without further incident. 

Near the close of the war, when conscription became 
necessary to fill up the depleted ranks of the armies, in 
order to fill the quota of Plymouth, the School Board is- 
sued bounty bonds in amounts aggregating upwards of 
$15,000 to supply substitutes for those unable or unwill- 
ing to go. 

In July, 1877, almost immediately succeeding the 
peaceful enjoyments incident to the centennial celebration 
of our national independence, the country was startled 
at the outbreak of very serious rioting by the railroad 
employes in Pittsburg. These outbreaks of lawlessness, 
like an epidemic of contagious disease, rapidly spread 
over near the entire State. Railroad traffic was for a 
time interrupted, employes being assaulted and engines 
and cars demolished. Local authorities were utterly un- 
able to cope with the situation, and the entire national 
guard of the State was called into service. The miners 
in the anthracite regions of Schuylkill and Luzerne and 
Lackawanna Counties were : at the time on strike and 
soon became infected. A demon like spirit seemed to 
pervade the masses. In Scranton, Mayor McKune had 
been violently assaulted, and a posse of the leading citi- 
zens had fired upon and killed several of the rioters. A 
passenger train on the L. & B. R. R., arriving at Ply- 
mouth from Northumberland in the evening was stoned 
and the train obliged to remain on the siding at the depot. 
I was Burgess at the time and a committee of represen- 
tative citizens reported to me, their fears of contemplated 
incendiarism against certain of the properties located 
here and connected with mining industries, and requested 



90 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

me to officially Invoke protection from the State. I tele- 
graphed the State authorities and soon thereafter a regi- 
ment of soldiers was in possession of the town. Great 
was the indignation expressed at the arrival of troops, 
and — as also occurred in more recent years — many 
anxious inquiries were made regarding the responsibility 
for the presence here of troops. The answer may per- 
haps be found in the Adjutant General's report for that 
year. 

Governor Hartranft, who had hastened home from a 
western journey at the commencement of the troubles, 
had by this time assumed control of the situation, and 
by a singular conincidence, Brigadier General E. W. 
Matthews, a former school teacher in Plymouth, was in 
charge of the troops which invaded the town. In front 
of the engine of the train which carried the troops was 
placed a gun, and at Nanticoke several companies were 
disembarked, and as skirmishers, during the night, pro- 
ceeded up the road, taking into custody every man 
caught out of doors. Near a hundred of these night 
prowlers were thus captured, quite a number in Plymouth, 
some of whom were carried to Scranton, there to give an 
account of their actions. 

The troops remained stationed here, and in the lo- 
cality for several weeks, the staff officers using the stalled 
railroad cars for their headquarters. 

During this period, occurred the trials and executions 
of the notorious Molly Maguires, an organized band 
of assassins which, for a number of years had terrorized 
all the counties in the anthracite coal region. It was a 
secret organization whose members were bound together 
by oaths and having signs and passwords, among whom 
assassination of objectionable persons was but a mere 
pastime. 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 91 

So powerful had this dangerous organization become, 
that it required several years of patient effort on the part 
of skilled detectives, under the auspices of Franklin B. 
Gowen, president of the Reading Railroad Company, to 
unearth and disband them. Many were arrested and sen- 
tenced to long terms of imprisonment, and near a dozen 
of them were executed in the several counties. Some of 
the members of this nefarious gang were located in Ply- 
mouth, and I still have in my possession as relics, quite a 
choice collection of murderous lead and brass knuckles, 
and leaded billies which were captured by the policemen 
of the town during those troublous times. One of their 
number named Dunleavy, was mysteriously shot one even- 
ing in, a saloon on East Main Street, which incident had 
the effect of putting a quietus on the band in Plymouth. 



Chapter XIV. 

The Avondale Disaster— Typhoid Fever Epidemic — The Changes 
in Population — A Filial Tribute — Conclusion. 

P LYMOUTH among other means, has gained a wide 
notoriety throughout the country by reason of her 
misfortunes and calamities. One of these occurred about 
10 o'clock on Monday morning, September 6, 1869, when 
a fire broke out at the Avondale Shaft which was known 
also as the Steuben Coal Co., which, in its terrible results 
gave a shock to the entire country, and spread a pall of 
grief over the whole valley. 

The fire originated from a ventilating furnace at the 
foot of the shaft and was thence communicated to the 
breaker located directly over it, causing the death by 
asphyxiation of no persons in the mine and leaving des- 
titute 72 widows and 153 orphaned children. Appeals to 



92 Reminiscences of Plymouth^ Pa. 

the country at large were made for relief of the destitute, 
which was generously responded to, to the amount of 
$155,825.10, 

Again, on the loth of April 1885, there suddenly 
broke out one of the most serious epidemics of typhoid 
fever on record. Its origin was traced to a typhoid fever 
patient living in a house which was located near the source 
of the town's water supply. The accumulated deadly germs 
emanating from this patient which had been cast upon 
the snow and frozen ground during the preceding month, 
were thence washed by the rains and melting snow into 
the stream which supplied the town with water. So 
rapid and virulent was the disease, that fifty cases a day 
developed, and some 1200 persons were stricken, among 
whom occurred over 100 deaths. The doctors of the 
town were unable to cope with it, and the suffering 
throughout the town was intense. Four and five cases 
were to be found in a single house and in some instances 
as many as three in a single room. The good people of 
Philadelphia came to the rescue and sent here a corps 
of trained medical attendants besides rendering substan- 
tial financial assistance. The High School building on 
Shawnee Avenue was converted into a hospital, and many 
of the patients were removed there. 

Among the many wonderful changes which have 
taken place in Plymouth within the lifetime of its oldest 
residents, none are perhaps so marked as in that of its 
inhabitants. From a mere hamlet, composed mostly of 
Connecticut Settlers or their descendants, every one of 
whom was well known to each other, it has grown to a 
heterogeneous population of some 17,000 — the dimen- 
sions of a third class city. The changes in the char- 
acter, manners and habits of the population have oc- 
curred at regular intervals, and bear a striking resem- 



Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 93 

blance to the migrations which have characterized the 
world's history, and verifies the truth of the saying, that 
"westward the star of empire takes its way." 

At the commencement of the extensive developments 
of the coal industry in the town and valley, the popula- 
tion was composed largely of Irish and Germans, drawn 
hither by those operations. These in a few years gave 
place to the English and Welsh, and they in turn have 
been largely displaced by the Slavonic and other peoples 
of eastern and southern parts of Europe who, in like 
manner may eventually give place to the Chinese and 
Japanese, who knows. 

Frequent mention of my father has been, made 
throughout the preceding pages, and necessarily it could 
not well be otherwise, for the name of Samuel French 
was connected, or associated with, nearly every indus- 
trial and business enterprise in the town for many years, 
hence, that reference was not the result of studied effort 
to exalt family pride and needs no apology. 

In closing these reminiscences however, a filial affec- 
tion for a kind and affectionate parent, as well as one 
of the leading and respected citizens of the town, 
prompts me to add a word to his revered mem- 
ory. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, July 6th, 
1803, about a month after the death of his father, who, 
by a singular coincidence, was born on the death bed of 
his mother. At an early age he came to Plymouth, 
where he lived, and died July 25th, 1866, a little past 
the age of 63 years. At an early period he engaged 
in the business of mining and shipping coal, later, in 
connection with mining, farming and merchandising. His 
mining operations he conducted until within a few years 
of his decease. He was always industrious — never idle 
— and by his industry and frugality he accumulated sufii- 



94 Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa. 

cient means to live more than comfortably. He was 
kind, indulgent and charitable, attended strictly to his 
own business and enjoyed the esteem and respect of every- 
one. 

In an obituary notice of him, published at the time of 
his death, it was said of him, that "he lived and died an 
honest man," and what better eulogy, or more noble 
heritage can be bequeathed. 

Now in conclusion, in penning these reminiscences, it 
has been my aim to present a pen picture of the town as I 
remembered it in boyhood days. In locating old land- 
marks, and gathering data, I have consulted old residents, 
records, and documents, and the results as I have re- 
corded them, I believe to be very generally authentic. 

The scenes and incidents related, are most entirely 
those of my own personal knowledge of the occurrences, 
or, as I have heard them related by old people. 

This recital of former scenes and incidents relating 
to my native town, in which my endeavor has been to 
"Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice," I 
have little doubt will revive in the minds of older people, 
long forgotten memories of the past, and perhaps, in a 
historical sense, may not be entirely uninteresting to the 
younger generation; and, if perhance their perusal af- 
fords as much pleasure to the reader, as the recital has 
afforded pleasure and recreation to the writer, he will be 
in a measure repaid for his time and labor. 

"The evil that men do lives after them; 
The good, is oft interred with their bones." 



LOTUS PRESS, NEW YORK 



